In the year since spinach contaminated with E. coli sickened
hundreds and killed three nationwide, a debate has raged about how
to best protect consumers from another such outbreak.
Hollister – In the year since spinach contaminated with E. coli sickened hundreds and killed three nationwide, a debate has raged about how to best protect consumers from another such outbreak.
The largest investigation into a food-borne illness in U.S. history offered no concrete answer how it happened. The E. coli was traced to pre-washed, bagged spinach processed at Natural Selection Foods’ San Juan Bautista plant.
The federal and state investigation found traces of the E. coli in water and cattle and pig feces here in San Benito County on Paicines Ranch within a mile of a Mission Organics spinach field. Investigators did not directly link the outbreak to Mission Organics and provided no explanation of how the contamination occurred.
The leafy green industry and legislators developed conflicting ideas of how further outbreaks should be prevented.
Within four months, the state and industry developed the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement to increase safety practices among handlers of produce such as spinach and lettuce.
Under the marketing agreement, growers who supply handlers with produce are subject to two major mandatory agricultural practices that were underscored with information gained from the investigation into the September 2006 outbreak, said Ocean Mist Farms Vice President Joe Pezzini, who played a major role in organizing the marketing agreement and acts as its board chairman.
The first is that everything being put into the soil – seeds, water and soil amendments – are rigorously tested, Pezzini said. The other is that each individual property is evaluated in a third-party assessment to determine specific environmental risks.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture audits handlers, using an agricultural practices checklist developed by the California Leafy Green Marketing Agreement board to police food safety.
“There was no audit program to verify practices on the farm,” Pezzini said of guidelines before the September 2006 outbreak.
Those critical of the leafy green marketing agreement have argued that the industry should not be allowed to police itself.
Elisa Odabashian, director of the Consumers Union West Coast office, said the Public Health Department should be in charge of the audits. She said the CDFA is too close to the agriculture industry.
“That’s basically the fox guarding the hen house in our view,” Odabashian said of the CDFA’s audits.
Sen. Dean Florez, D-Merced, watched three bills he introduced – which would have given the state health department the power to regulate the leafy green industry – die in the Assembly Agriculture Committee.
Pezzini said the CDFA is more familiar with farm practices and thus better equipped to run the audits.
Kay Filice, who owns Hollister-based Filice Farms and is the chairwoman of the Central California Grower-Shipper Association, said the marketing agreement will allow the industry to adapt to new scientific findings and problems.
“The beauty of it is its ability to quickly assess a potential problem and address a situation,” Filice said.
Filice said the industry and regulators still lack the sound science behind how pathogens ultimately contaminate produce.
The first test of the marketing agreement may come in the form of an Aug. 28 recall of bagged spinach processed at Salinas-based Metz Fresh.
Metz Fresh – which signed on to the agreement – found salmonella in spinach during a finished product test, said Greg Larsen, a spokesman for Metz Fresh.
The marketing agreement does not include finished product testing because it can return false positives, Pezzini said. About a month ago, True Leaf Farms – a part of San Juan Bautista-based Church Brothers – began a recall after receiving such a false positive for salmonella, Pezzini said.
“It turns out it was contaminated from the lab,” Pezzini said.
San Juan Bautista-based Natural Selection Foods began testing and holding its finished product within two weeks of the outbreak as part of its own food safety program, said Samantha Cabaluna, the company’s spokeswoman.
Larsen said the Metz Fresh is working with state and federal investigators to determine how the salmonella made its way into the bags of spinach.
“That investigation is still ongoing,” he said.
So far, no one has reported illness from the contaminated produce, Larsen said.
But the fact that the contaminated product reached store shelves is proof that the marketing agreement isn’t working, Odabashian said.
“They have a test-and-send-out-to-consumers policy,” Odabashian said of Metz Fresh.
Two days after the Metz Fresh contamination was announced, Florez sent a letter to A.G. Kawamura, the secretary of the CDFA.
In the letter, Florez wrote that he was troubled Metz Fresh had signed on to the marketing agreement, but didn’t catch the contamination until after it had been shipped. He requested that Kawamura look into the contamination and find if Metz Fresh had violated the marketing agreement or if the marketing agreement had not been enforced.
“This raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of the current food safety program and signals the need for strong regulation on the part of government,” Florez wrote.
