A Tale of Three Outbreaks: ConAgra plea deal reached

Posted on December 14, 2016 by Ben Chapman

A couple of weeks ago I left my cozy bubble of Raleigh and travelled to Wayne County NC for an evening talk at the Farm-City Banquet. As I was driving I thought about Doug and Gord Surgeoner’s mentorship – both instilled the importance of engaging with real people around issues and chatting over dinners.

Research and extension activities need grounding in reality.

The morning of the event I wasn’t entirely sure what to talk about – so I asked Schaffner for input during a podcast recording. He suggested ‘A Tale of Two Outbreaks’ – comparing Jensen Farms to PCA. Both tragic outbreaks, both resulting in criminal charges. One was due to an egregious disregard for public health. The other seemed to be a couple of folks who meant well but didn’t quite get microbiology.

Be the bug.

For the next talk I’m gonna add in ConAgra’s Peter Pan/Salmonella outbreak as part of the story.

The Associated Press reports that ConAgra pled guilty and has agreed to pay $11.2 million in fines and other fees as a result of an outbreak a decade ago.

ConAgra admitted to a single misdemeanor count of shipping adulterated food. No individuals at the leading food conglomerate faced any charges in the 2006 outbreak, which sickened at least 625 people in 47 states.

Disease detectives traced the salmonella to a plant in rural Sylvester, Georgia, that produced peanut butter for ConAgra under the Peter Pan label and the Great Value brand sold at Wal-Mart. In 2007 the company recalled all the peanut butter it had sold since 2004.

Leo Knowles, president of ConAgra Grocery Products, offered no testimony as he entered the misdemeanor plea Tuesday on behalf of the Chicago-based corporation’s subsidiary.

“It made a lot of people sick,” federal prosecutor Graham Thorpe said Tuesday as he described ConAgra’s decision to continue shipments from the Georgia plant in late 2006, before corrective actions were completed, despite lab tests that had twice detected salmonella in samples.

“The industry has taken notice of this prosecution,” Thorpe added.

Though the Justice Department called $8 million the heftiest criminal fine ever imposed in a U.S. food safety case, it represents just one-tenth of one percent of ConAgra’s current $8 billion market capitalization. The company also will pay $3.2 million in cash forfeitures to the federal government.

ConAgra said it didn’t know peanut butter was contaminated with salmonella before it was shipped. However, the plea agreement documents noted that ConAgra knew peanut butter made in Georgia had twice tested positive for salmonella in 2004. Problems weren’t all fixed by the time of the outbreak.

The judge noted that others had already received cash from ConAgra in civil settlements, which he said totaled $36 million to 6,810 people.

About 2,000 of them were represented by Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney who specializes in food-safety cases. He said the case shows corporations can be prosecuted even when there’s no evidence of intentional criminality. The misdemeanor charge, he said, required only that ConAgra shipped the contaminated food.

“Companies are very concerned, they’re very worried,” Marler said. “They’re very interested in knowing: How can they charge us with a crime even if we don’t mean to do it? People are paying attention to that and hopefully it’s going to drive positive food behavior.”

The folks in the food and agriculture world in Wayne County seemed to pay attention.

Judge denies dismissal in PrimusLabs cantaloupe cases

Posted on November 1, 2014 by Douglas Powell

The Packer reports that a Colorado judge has refused to dismiss at least 24 cases filed against PrimusLabs by victims and their families related to the 2011 listeria outbreak involving cantaloupe from Jensen Farms.

The judge also refused to dismiss cross claims filed against PrimusLabs by distributor Frontera Produce Ltd. and Dillon’s, one of the Kroger Co. banners.

Judge Charles Pratt filed orders Oct. 28 requiring the cases to move forward. The cases are among 66 victim cases pending in courts across more than a dozen states.

At least 147 people became sick and at least 33 died because of listeria infections after eating the Jensens’ cantaloupe, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC estimates at least 10 other people who had the outbreak strains of listeria had eaten the Jensen cantaloupe, but health officials had not confirmed the link when filing out death certificates.

Judge Pratt sided with the plaintiffs, saying PrimusLabs “knew or reasonably should have known that until it completed the audit the cantaloupe would not be released for sale to the public.”

Seattle food safety attorney Bill Marler, who is directly representing 46 of the victim plaintiffs directly and several more indirectly, declined to comment on Judge Pratt’s refusal to dismiss the cases against PrimusLabs.

In his order denying the PrimusLabs’ request to dismiss the victim cases and the cross claims filed by Frontera and Dillon’s, Judge Pratt said he is bound by law to allow the cases to proceed.

Here’s what we think of audits:

Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety

30.aug.12

Food Control

D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman

Internal and external food safety audits are conducted to assess the safety and quality of food including on-farm production, manufacturing practices, sanitation, and hygiene. Some auditors are direct stakeholders that are employed by food establishments to conduct internal audits, while other auditors may represent the interests of a second-party purchaser or a third-party auditing agency. Some buyers conduct their own audits or additional testing, while some buyers trust the results of third-party audits or inspections. Third-party auditors, however, use various food safety audit standards and most do not have a vested interest in the products being sold. Audits are conducted under a proprietary standard, while food safety inspections are generally conducted within a legal framework. There have been many foodborne illness outbreaks linked to food processors that have passed third-party audits and inspections, raising questions about the utility of both. Supporters argue third-party audits are a way to ensure food safety in an era of dwindling economic resources. Critics contend that while external audits and inspections can be a valuable tool to help ensure safe food, such activities represent only a snapshot in time. This paper identifies limitations of food safety inspections and audits and provides recommendations for strengthening the system, based on developing a strong food safety culture, including risk-based verification steps, throughout the food safety system.

Auditors getting their due? Kroger sues Primus in Jensen cantaloupe listeria case

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Douglas Powell

Coral Beach of The Packer writes that in a cross claim filed June 2 in a Colorado state court, the country’s second largest retailer names Primus and distributor Frontera Produce Ltd. as defendants in the death of a Colorado man who contracted a Listeria monocytogenes infection after eating cantaloupe from the Holly, Colo.

“Primus misrepresented the conditions and practices at Jensen Farms ranchlands and packinghouse by giving it a superior rating and high score despite the existence of conditions and practices that should have caused a failure of the facility,” according to Kroger’s claim.

Primus has 30 days to respond, but the food safety auditing company has maintained its lack of liability in dozens of cases filed by victims and relatives and in a federal case filed by brothers Eric and Ryan Jensen, owners of the bankrupt cantaloupe operation.

The 2011 listeria monocytogenes outbreak traced to the Jensens’ cantaloupe resulted in 33 deaths and another 147 illnesses across 28 states, according to the Centers for Disease control and Prevention.

Time to change the discussion and the approach to safe food. Time to lose the religion: audits and inspections are never enough.

• Food safety audits and inspections are a key component of the nation’s food safety system and their use will expand in the future, for both domestic and imported foodstuffs, but recent failures can be emotionally, physically and financially devastating to the victims and the businesses involved;

• many outbreaks involve firms that have had their food production systems verified and received acceptable ratings from food safety auditors or government inspectors;

• while inspectors and auditors play an active role in overseeing compliance, the burden for food safety lies primarily with food producers;

• there are lots of limitations with audits and inspections, just like with restaurants inspections, but with an estimated 48 million sick each year in the U.S., the question should be, how best to improve food safety?

• audit reports are only useful if the purchaser or food producer reviews the results, understands the risks addressed by the standards and makes risk-reduction decisions based on the results;

• there appears to be a disconnect between what auditors provide (a snapshot) and what buyers believe they are doing (a full verification or certification of product and process);

• third-party audits are only one performance indicator and need to be supplemented with microbial testing, second-party audits of suppliers and the in-house capacity to meaningfully assess the results of audits and inspections;

• companies who blame the auditor or inspector for outbreaks of foodborne illness should also blame themselves;

• assessing food-handling practices of staff through internal observations, externally-led evaluations, and audit and inspection results can provide indicators of a food safety culture; and,

• the use of audits to help create, improve, and maintain a genuine food safety culture holds the most promise in preventing foodborne illness and safeguarding public health.

Audits and inspections are never enough: A critique to enhance food safety

30.aug.12

Food Control

D.A. Powell, S. Erdozain, C. Dodd, R. Costa, K. Morley, B.J. Chapman

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713512004409?v=s5

Abstract

No jail time for Jensens in cantaloupe Listeria outbreak

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Douglas Powell

A federal judge in Denver sentenced Eric and Ryan Jensen each to six months of home detention and five years probation for selling Listeria contaminated cantaloupe in 2011 that killed 33 and sickened 147 people across 28 states.

The brothers, who owned and operated Jensen Farms, Granada, Colo., pleaded guilty last year to six federal misdemeanors of introducing an adulterated food into interstate commerce. They could have faced up to six years in prison and $1.5 million in fines.

Coral Beach of The Packer reports the judge also ordered the Jensens each to pay restitution of $150,000 and to do 100 hours of community service, according to U.S. Attorney’s office in Denver. Ryan Jensen agreed to attend a substance abuse program and take drug tests and Eric Jensen agreed to provide a DNA sample, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The Jan. 28 ruling by Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty came after the U.S. Attorney’s office and officials from the federal probation and parole office recommended probation in the case.

“These defendants were at worse negligent or reckless in their acts and omissions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jaime Pena wrote in a court document recommending probation.

Cantaloupe auditor also criticized in U.S. criminal charges over listeria

Posted on October 2, 2013 by Douglas Powell

“The Primus Labs subcontractor that conducted the pre-harvest inspection of Jensen Farms was seriously deficient in their inspection and findings.”

Which, according to Michael Booth of The Denver Post, questions the role of the third-party auditor.

That allegation was contained in the documents filed in the wake of criminal charges against the Jensen brothers for the 2011 listeria-in-cantaloupe outbreak that killed 33, and was made by Dr. Jim. Gorny, who was then senior advisor to the FDA’s Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition.

According to Booth’s reading of the records, the Jensens had a visit from a food safety auditor just before they shipped the first tainted cantaloupes, and the federal charges note the Primus Labs auditor gave them a 96 per cent “superior” rating. About the same time, the government notes, Jensen Farms made a pact with Frontera Produce to distribute the cantaloupes across the country.

Critics in the federal charges and elsewhere have said an auditor should have noticed the Jensens were using the wrong kind of equipment to wash and sort their melons. They had bought used potato harvesting equipment, and that was meant for foods that would be fully cooked, not served raw. The machines allowed the water to pool and become tainted over time, with listeria “inoculating” onto the cantaloupe as it passed by. A chlorine-based system should have been added to spray anti-bacterial water onto the cantaloupes, FDA and other critics have said (though that was not a hard and fast government rule at the time, merely a suggestion).

But what is the FDA doing about that troubled third-party system in food, where the company selling the food is paying the auditor to approve the quality of the food? Nothing visible.

FDA said in a statement the criminal prosecution “sends the message that absolute care must be taken to FDA said after the charges were filed that deadly pathogens do not enter our food supply chain.”

Food safety is first, the responsibility of growers, and some growers are better than others.

Cantaloupe moves through the system; Frontera CEO discusses company’s role in listeria outbreak

Posted on November 28, 2011 by Douglas Powell

On Nov. 21, The Packer conducted an exclusive question-and-answer interview with Will Steele, president and CEO of Frontera Produce, Edinburg, Texas, the marketer of the listeria-tainted cantaloupes shipped by Jensen Farms, Holly, Colo. Below are some edited highlights from that interview.

Q. Please explain Frontera Produce’s business relationship with Jensen Farms.

Our role was that of a marketing agent, providing our expertise to find buyers and manage the sales paperwork and logistics for cantaloupe grown and packed by Jensen Farms.

As part of our marketing services, we utilized our inventory control system in which every pallet of Jensen Farms cantaloupe marketed by Frontera was remotely entered into our database when it was harvested and shipped. This proved to be important in tracking the product to customers in our database because we had records of where each pallet came from and where Jensen Farms shipped it.

Q. What are Frontera Produce’s food safety requirements and traceability systems? Have any changed since this outbreak?

In the wake of this experience, we are examining, among other things, the role of audits. Third-party audits are an important and useful tool, but they are obviously not fail-safe. Audits provide baseline information on conditions at the time they are conducted. So we are looking at possible changes that might further enhance food safety. One area of focus is whether additional steps are needed to validate the audit findings regarding food safety protocols that are in place. Validation could be in the form of a follow-up audit, or perhaps other measures that will help provide additional assurance of food safety compliance.
This is an industry-wide issue that all of us must deal with, so we are also talking with others in the produce industry and sharing our experience so that we can further our collective knowledge and understanding.

Q. What’s your view on the lawsuits that have named Frontera as a defendant?

First, it is important to remember that the greatest tragedy in all of this is the human one. And it is this human tragedy that drives us to continue to analyze every aspect of this unprecedented event in an attempt to prevent it from ever happening again.

That there is litigation is not surprising; almost anytime there is an injury, a lawsuit will follow. In fact, it is to be expected. We have seen this again and again, where even companies that never saw or touched the product were drawn into litigation based on association or something other than actual wrong-doing. It is an unfortunate reality.

23 dead, 1 miscarriage, 116 ill from listeria-in-cantaloupe; on-farm report still due

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Douglas Powell

How long until it’s an Entertainment News headline:

It’s the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years! Here’s what celebrities are doing to protect themselves!

As I told CBS Radio a couple of hours ago, I find top-10 lists of most-dead people by food distasteful; all outbreaks are tragic, especially when a bug like listeria preys on the most vulnerable in society.

And the lists are so U.S.-centric.

What about Ontario (that’s in Canada): 1985, 19 of 55 affected people at a London, nursing home died after eating sandwiches contaminated with E. coli O157. Or listeria in Maple Leaf deli meats in 2008 – 24 dead.

Or Scotland (that’s over there). 1996, 22 dead and over 500 sick from E. coli O157 in roast beef sandwiches.

Earlier today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that 23 people had died and 116 people had been confirmed as ill with any of the four outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes in cantaloupe from Jensen Farms in Colorado. In addition, one woman pregnant at the time of illness had a miscarriage.

The deadliest-outbreak-in-25-years headlines soon followed.

The FDA and CDC have had teams in Jensen Farms fields and packing sheds, testing the soil, water and surfaces for clues. A report on the FDA’s findings is anticipated in the coming weeks.

About 800 laboratory-confirmed cases of Listeria infection are reported each year in the United States and typically 3 or 4 outbreaks are identified. The foods that typically cause these outbreaks have been deli meats, hot dogs, and Mexican-style soft cheeses made with unpasteurized milk. Produce is not often identified as a source, but sprouts caused an outbreak in 2009, and celery caused an outbreak in 2010.

100 confirmed sick, 18 dead from listeria in cantaloupes; why and how it happened remains unconfirmed

Posted on October 5, 2011 by Douglas Powell

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control confirmed that 100 persons infected with any of the four outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes have been reported to CDC from 20 states, including 18 deaths.

Is food local when it’s distributed to 20 U.S. states?

The cantaloupe from Jensen Farms in Colorado near the Kansas border likes to bill itself as local and pesticide-free, but I’d rather buy listeria-free cantaloupe from almost anywhere. Geographical knowledge is no substitute for microbiological safety.

U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said Tuesday that the agency is still investigating the cause of the outbreak. Officials have said they are looking at the farm’s water supply and possible animal intrusions among other things in trying to figure out how the cantaloupes became contaminated.

What retailers bought these melons? Who did the food safety audits for those retailers that concluded thumbs up for these melons?

Listeria found in Colorado farm’s cantaloupe, on packing equipment; 4 dead, 31 sick

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Douglas Powell

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today it found Listeria monocytogenes in samples of Jensen Farms’ Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupe taken from a Denver-area store and on samples taken from equipment and cantaloupe at the Jensen Farms’ packing facility. Tests confirmed that the Listeria monocytogenes found in the samples matches one of the three different strains of Listeria monocytogenes associated with the multi-state outbreak of listeriosis.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control updated the official outbreak count to 35 persons infected with the outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes, including four deaths, from 10 states.

Jensen Farms voluntarily recalled its Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes a week ago in response to the multi-state outbreak of listeriosis. Cantaloupes from other farms in Colorado, including farms in the Rocky Ford growing area, have not been linked to this outbreak.

Jensen Farms is helping federal and state authorities determine how the cantaloupes became contaminated.

The FDA’s root-cause investigation and environmental assessment includes the on-site expertise of FDA and state of Colorado microbiologists, environmental health specialists, veterinarians and investigative officers. The experts conducting the assessment will analyze the evidence, determine the most likely cause of contamination and identify potential controls to help prevent contamination in the future. The FDA will use the findings to help inform agency policy regarding Listeria and produce food safety best practices.

Jensen Farms shipped the recalled cantaloupes from July 29 through Sept. 10 to at least 17 states with possible further distribution.

For additional information about the recalled products, including product labels: http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm271879.htm.

A table of cantaloupe- (or rock melon) related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/cantaloupe-related-outbreaks.

2 dead, 22 confirmed sick; multistate outbreak of listeriosis linked to Rocky Ford cantaloupes from Jensen Farms

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Douglas Powell

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported this morning that 22 persons infected with the outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes have been reported from 7 states. The number of infected persons identified in each state is as follows: Colorado (12), Indiana (1), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (4), Oklahoma (1), Texas (2), and West Virginia (1). Two deaths have been reported, one in Colorado and one in New Mexico.

Collaborative investigative efforts of state, local, and federal public health and regulatory agencies have linked this outbreak to eating whole cantaloupe from Jensen Farms, of Granada, Colorado.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to eat Rocky Ford Cantaloupe shipped by Jensen Farms and to throw away recalled product that may still be in their home.
Jensen Farms is voluntarily recalling Rocky Ford Cantaloupe shipped from July 29 through September 10, 2011, and distributed to at least 17 states with possible further distribution.

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