[USCC] Fwd: "America's Food Safety System Needs an Overhaul" By Marion Nestle

[Jim McNelly]

>Posted on Sun, Oct. 22, 2006
>[]
>
><http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15821807.htm>http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/15821807.htm
>
>
>The spinach fallout: Restoring trust in California produce
>THE E. COLI OUTBREAK DEMONSTRATES WHY AMERICA'S FOOD SAFETY SYSTEM 
>NEEDS AN OVERHAUL
>By Marion Nestle
>
>In the produce section of an upstate New York supermarket last week, 
>a prominent sign boldly stated, ``Spinach is back! The spinach we 
>currently offer is grown in Colorado and Canada.''
>
>The sign announced to customers that spinach from Colorado and 
>Canada is safe to eat. The clear message was that spinach from 
>California is not. In fact, the store has not carried any since 
>mid-September when the FDA first warned the public not to eat fresh 
>spinach because of an outbreak of the particularly nasty form of E. 
>coli known as 0157:H7.
>
>Since mid-August, federal agencies have logged 199 cases of illness, 
>including 102 hospitalizations and three deaths, caused by eating 
>raw spinach grown and bagged in California and somehow contaminated 
>with E. coli 0157:H7. With lawsuits filed and plenty of blame to go 
>around, stores are reluctant to carry any California spinach, even 
>that grown beyond the two Salinas Valley counties -- Monterey and 
>San Benito -- currently under investigation.
>
>The recent outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7, which was traced to spinach 
>grown on a farm in the Salinas Valley, illustrates why our food 
>safety system needs a major overhaul. This month, Sen. Richard 
>Durbin, D-Ill. and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., introduced a bill to 
>unify federal food safety oversight under a single agency. Passage 
>of this legislation is critical to the future of California agriculture.
>
>The E. coli outbreak is a disaster, not only for the victims who 
>were infected, but for everyone who has a stake in California 
>agriculture-growers, farmworkers, truckers, packer and those of us 
>who want plenty of vegetables in our diet. But the fervent promises 
>by Salinas Valley growers to institute standard food safety 
>procedures are coming too late and are simply not enough.
>
>For anyone who tracks the arcane politics of food safety in the 
>United States, this outbreak was entirely predictable. Since 1998, 
>the Food and Drug Administration has repeatedly warned producers of 
>fresh fruit and vegetables about the dangers of E. coli 0157:H7 and 
>the need for measures to keep potential sources of these bacteria 
>well away from their crops.
>
>In 2004, the FDA issued a plan for preventive steps that it fully 
>expected vegetable producers to follow. But last year the agency 
>complained that its long efforts to engage the lettuce industry 
>``have not yet resulted in a comprehensive, collaborative plan to 
>address the issue of E. coli 0157:H7.'' The FDA then warned growers 
>to get busy and fix the problem.
>
>This August -- too late to prevent the current outbreak -- the 
>agency extended this warning to spinach producers. The futility of 
>the FDA's increasingly urgent pleas reflects the huge gaps in the 
>nation's century-old and highly dysfunctional food safety system.
>
>Oversight in this area is shared largely between two agencies, the 
>USDA for food animals and the FDA for food plants. Neither has much 
>jurisdiction over farms. The FDA in particular has little 
>enforcement authority. It can do little more than issue warnings and 
>ask for voluntary recalls and action plans.
>
>How many people have to be sickened or die, and how many crops and 
>livelihoods have to be destroyed, before it becomes obvious that 
>voluntary is not good enough? If ever a situation called for a 
>unified farm-to-table food safety system-with real regulations, 
>inspections, and enforcement -- the recent E. coli outbreak is it.
>
>The lethality of the 0157:H7 variant of E. coli, an otherwise benign 
>inhabitant of the intestinal tracts of humans and animals, is reason 
>enough to require action. The first case of human illness associated 
>with this strain was reported in 1975, and the first outbreak 
>occurred in 1982. This variant has several especially troublesome 
>features. It survives heat, drying, and acid conditions better than 
>garden variety E. coli, and causes infection at very low doses. This 
>means that control measures must do more than just prevent the 
>growth of these bacteria. Measures must either kill all of the 
>bacteria or completely prevent them from getting into food in the first place.
>
>Until recently, raw or rare hamburger was the most important origin 
>of E. coli 0157:H7 outbreaks, but no more. According to the Center 
>for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group, contaminated 
>produce is now responsible for more cases of illness than any other 
>food category.
>
>Hamburger is a problem because the ultimate source of E. coli 
>0157:H7 is invariably untreated animal waste from an infected farm 
>animal. Federal investigators have now traced the source of the 
>recent spinach E. coli 0157:H7 to animals on a single farm. How the 
>bacteria got from manure on that farm to the spinach is not yet 
>known. Although wild animals and farm workers are possible sources, 
>the most likely possibility is transmission through ground water 
>that carried the bacteria from a source of untreated manure to the 
>growing fields.
>
>Also uncertain is why the bacteria failed to be washed away in the 
>packing plant run by Natural Solution Foods in San Juan Bautista. 
>The spinach was processed through this plant's highly regarded, 
>state-of-the-art, triple-washing procedures. No breaches in 
>procedures have been identified, which means that washing apparently 
>is insufficient to remove E. coli 0157:H7. This only serves to 
>reinforce the importance of making sure the bacteria do not get on 
>spinach leaves in the first place. While the investigations 
>continue, the recent outbreak has taught us some important lessons.
>
>Lesson 1: Prevention is essential; treatment is too late: The first 
>case of illness associated with bagged spinach occurred on Aug. 19, 
>and half the illnesses began before Labor Day, but government health 
>officials did not hear about them until Sept. 13. On Sept. 14, when 
>the FDA issued warnings and asked for recalls, 85 percent of the 
>illnesses had already happened. It takes a minimum of two weeks from 
>the time people become ill and go to a doctor before test results 
>can be received and reported to health authorities. By then, any 
>warnings or recalls come too late to protect public health.
>
>Lesson 2: Don't blame organics this time: Within minutes of the 
>FDA's spinach warning, proponents of industrial agriculture were 
>blaming the outbreak on manure-based fertilizers used in organic 
>production. Yes, the contaminated spinach was packed at a plant that 
>also bags organic produce, but the infected product was industrial 
>spinach, conventionally grown.
>
>Organic growers are required to follow strict rules for heating 
>manure to a temperature high enough to kill any harmful bacteria and 
>for storing treated manure until it is safe to use on vegetable 
>crops. They are inspected to make sure they follow those rules. In 
>contrast, conventional crops are not subject to any regulations on 
>the use of manure.
>
>Lesson 3: Industrial agriculture has its down side: The spinach 
>outbreak points to the vulnerabilities of what author Michael Pollan 
>refers to as the ``Vegetable-Industrial Complex.'' The ability of 
>Salinas Valley farms to grow enough spinach to feed the entire 
>nation comes at a price. If something goes wrong, it goes wrong big time.
>
>This outbreak was exceptionally difficult to trace back to its 
>source because Natural Solution Foods ships bagged spinach all over 
>the country under many different labels. Eventually, 26 states, 
>ranging from Washington to Virginia, reported cases of illness, and 
>one case occurred in Canada.
>
>The current system produces abundant food at low cost, but at the 
>risk of safety failures that can affect large numbers of people. If 
>we want to continue this system, we need better food safety 
>procedures. Alternatively, we can promote locally grown foods. These 
>also can become contaminated, but they will cause more limited damage.
>
>Lesson 4: Let's raise healthier farm animals: Nobody knows where E. 
>coli 0157:H7 came from in the first place, but the best guess is 
>that it evolved as an unintended consequence of the switch-over from 
>grass to corn and soybeans as food for cattle. Nutritionally 
>concentrated feeds change conditions in cattle's digestive systems 
>to favor the survival of hardier bacteria. At least one study 
>suggests that grass feeding supports a more typical and safer 
>population of intestinal bacteria. If true, this is a good reason to 
>get cattle out of the feedlots and back to eating grass.
>
>Lesson 5: Forget voluntary. It never works: It is instructive to 
>read the FDA's increasingly strident warnings to vegetable producers 
>over the years to keep animals and their wastes well away from 
>crops. The 1998 advisory made it clear that the FDA was issuing 
>guidance, not regulation, and that its advice would not be subject 
>to enforcement. This gave growers the option of ignoring the 
>warnings, which most did. The FDA's more recent and much tougher 
>warnings also have had little effect.
>
>Lesson 6: The food safety system needs an overhaul: The absurdities 
>of the present food safety system would be comical if the 
>consequences weren't so tragic. The FDA is in charge of vegetable 
>crops and only becomes involved once bags of spinach are 
>contaminated -- ``adulterated'' in FDA-speak. The Centers for 
>Disease Control and Prevention investigates outbreaks after the 
>fact. The USDA is responsible for animal health; its jurisdiction 
>starts at the slaughterhouse. For all practical purposes, no agency 
>oversees what happens on farms.
>
>Lesson 7: Contaminated spinach is a political issue: Congress has 
>not given FDA the authority or resources to enforce safety 
>procedures on farms. As former USDA food safety official Michael 
>Taylor points out, the burden of the mess in our food safety system 
>falls squarely on Capitol Hill.
>
>Some in Washington are now recognizing the urgent need for a 
>coordinated farm-to-table food safety system. Since the early 1990s, 
>the watchdog Government Accountability Office has repeatedly called 
>on Congress to unify food safety functions under a single agency and 
>to give it the authority and resources needed to oversee the entire 
>food system. The Durbin-DeLauro bill would do just that.
>
>Certainly, calling for more regulations is not a popular stance. 
>Regulations are difficult to follow, generate costs, and are not 
>always applied fairly or consistently. But nothing less has worked. 
>If California wants the nation to keep buying its spinach and other 
>crops grown here -- and if Californians want the produce they eat to 
>be safe -- then the system must be fixed.
>
>MARION NESTLE is the Paulette Goddard professor of nutrition, food 
>studies and public health at New York University and the author of 
>``Food Politics,'' ``Safe Food'' and, most recently, ``What to 
>Eat.'' She wrote this article for Perspective.
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