Lost in Translation: Time to end don’t ask, don’t tell, in food safety outbreak reporting

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Douglas Powell

There are some new Fresh Express bagged salad commercials running on the television; they don’t mention anything about Salmonella or the many efforts Fresh Express takes to control dangerous pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli in its products.

Which is too bad.

There have been many reinterpretations of history regarding fresh produce and microbial food safety. We have argued the tipping point was 1996, involving both the Odwalla E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in unpasteurized juice, coupled with the cyclospora outbreak which was initially and erroneously linked to California strawberries (it was Guatemalan raspberries). This led to the first attempts at comprehensive on-farm food safety programs for fresh produce because, these bugs ain’t going to be washed off; they have to be prevented, as much as possible, from getting on or in fresh produce on the farm.

For the growers of leafy greens, things apparently didn’t tip until the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in bagged spinach from California that sickened 200 and killed four.

Ultimately, investigators showed that the E. coli O157:H7 was found on a transitional organic spinach field and was the same serotype as that found in a neighboring grass-fed cow-calf operation. These findings, coupled with the public outcry linked to the outbreak and the media coverage, sparked a myriad of changes and initiatives by the industry, government and others. What may never be answered is, why this outbreak at this time? A decade of evidence existed highlighting problems with fresh produce, warning letters were written, yet little was seemingly accomplished. The real challenge for food safety professionals, is to garner support for safe food practices in the absence of an outbreak, to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, from farm-to-fork, at all times, and not just in the glare of the media spotlight.

One of the responses out of California was to create the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement – after 29 outbreaks, at the time, linked to leafy greens and after years of warning from FDA. The most noticeable achievement since the Agreement has been the containment cone of silence that has descended upon outbreaks involving leafy greens, and an apparent shift in FDA policy that sets epidemiology aside and requires positive samples in unopened product – a ridiculous standard since no one routinely tests for other Shiga-toxin producing E. coli like O145. That was referring to the Freshway Foods E. coli O145 in romaine lettuce outbreak earlier this year that sickened some 50 people near colleges in Michigan, Ohio and New York.

These are all confirmed outbreaks. Every day, I receive a couple of messages about people sick here and there, and the public health types have dozens of potential foodborne outbreaks under scrutiny at any one time.

When to provide public information is a contentious issue: the public has a right to know about outbreaks of foodborne illness and rapid provision of information may prevent additional illnesses, but going too early and too often can be like crying wolf – especially if health types get it wrong and businesses are unduly harmed.

There is a lot of public and private frustration about the lack of guidelines for going public with information about outbreaks. Recent events won’t help.

An e-mail was circulated on May 12, 2010, asking food safety and public health types about a possible salmonella in lettuce outbreak in the Midwest U.S. with links to California.

On Thurs. May 20, lawyer Bill Marler speculated about a lettuce-related Salmonella outbreak in the "upper-Midwest, that appears linked to industry leader, Fresh Express. It is interesting that the Health Department and FDA remain silent on this one too.”

I didn’t publish anything because it was speculation – which I deal with everyday. We have guidelines for what we choose to publish or not. They are available at http://bites.ksu.edu/about-bites.

On May 24, 2010, Fresh Express publicly announced a recall of certain romaine-based ready-to-eat salads with the expired Use-by Dates of May 13th through May 16th and an "S" in the Product Code because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

The recall notification is being issued out of an abundance of caution based on an isolated instance in which a single package of Fresh Express Hearts of Romaine Salad with a use by date of May 15 was confirmed positive for Salmonella in a random sample test conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

I immediately took to barfblog.com, having been sitting on all this lettuce-related poop for awhile, and asked, when was the sample test conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because there have been rumors of a positive circulating on the Intertubes? When was the positive confirmed? What strain of Salmonella is involved? Why go public now instead of earlier? How incompetent does the Fresh Express PR person have to be to ignore these questions in the press release? Sounds like the Sponge Bob leafy greens cone of silence.

Shortly thereafter, I got a phone call from Dr. Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases and public health and a paid consultant to Fresh Express since 1999.

He didn’t like the post, and didn’t like the picture, which we use for every leafy green outbreak or incident (thank you Christian, former student who created it in my Guelph kitchen).

Osterholm and I bantered back and forth about going public and I stressed, if Fresh Express has a great food safety story to tell, they should tell it.

About 30 minutes later, Osterholm called me back and said, OK, Fresh Express says I can tell you whatever you want to know.

We talked at 6 a.m. central time the next day.

Osterholm repeatedly stressed how committed Fresh Express was to food safety and how that attracted him to consult for the firm. He talked about how the company had ‘boots on the ground’ rather than relying on outsiders for food safety audits, and that the safety culture trumped the legal culture that dominated other firms.

Good for them.

Osterholm stressed that Fresh Express tested irrigation water and product, but did not know if those results would be made public (although they were shared with regulators).

Osterholm told me he was informed a couple of weeks earlier – thereabouts to May 12, 2010 – there were eight people sick Salmonella typhirmirium linked to Fresh Express salad, but they had all consumed it several weeks earlier so there was no public health purpose in going public. The May 24, 2010 Salmonella recall was a completely separate incident. According to Osterholm, FDA types showed up at the Fresh Express office, didn’t know the Salmonella species, and yet Fresh Express executed a traceback and recall within hours and that showed how awesome the company was.

“Clearly having a salmonella positive in one of your bags is something you don’t want; here was a company that walked the talk, they had a traceback system and within hours could tell everyone about those fields.”

It didn’t say that in the Fresh Express press release, and it’s not up to me to tell their story.

On May 27, 2010, California’s organicgirl produce announced a precautionary recall of 10 oz organicgirl baby spinach with use-by date of May 22.

“organicgirl produce immediately conducted a traceability analysis and an appraisal of its food safety documentation, which were all in compliance. Additionally, organicgirl raw product testing records for the relevant time period did not show the presence of any pathogens.”

Not sure why Fresh Express couldn’t say the same. Maybe they need better PR people.

After talking with Osterholm, I sent an e-mail to the media relations folks at FDA regarding the May 24/10 Fresh Express Salmonella recall, and, after a few days, they responded:

Q. When was the sample collected i.e. when was the bag pulled?
A. May 5, 2010

Q. When was Fresh Express notified of the Salmonella positive?
A. May 21, 2010

Q. What kind of Salmonella was it?
A. S. Anatum

Q. Does FDA review and approve press releases such as the May 24/10 one from Fresh Express?
A. Recall press releases are reviewed at the District primarily.

I then sent a follow-up question, asking why so long between when the sample was pulled – May 5/10 – and the company informed of a positive – May 21/10.

No answer.

FDA, Fresh Express and the leafy greens folks all sorta suck at this communications thing.

FDA is responsive to – who knows, and has no policy for when or how to go public. Oh, they have some things they tell journalists, like this story in the Packer, but it’s full of fudge-factors. I understand there are uncertainties, but, like any good risk assessment, you go public and admit uncertainties rather than trying to act all-knowing.

FDA types also made a big splash in May when their transparency plan was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The task force also said the FDA should regularly share basic information about facility inspections it conducts and the result of each inspection. Routinely sharing the information could give the public a clearer understanding of the FDA’s role in protecting public health and would make firms accountable not just to the FDA, but to the larger public.

The information would also give other firms more information about the companies they choose to do business with, the group said. "Market pressures may create incentives for firms to correct violations quickly or prevent violations from occurring in the future."

OMG, FDA is talking about marketing food safety.

But Fresh Express, you’re an industry leader and this year’s winner of the International Association for Food Protection’s Black Pearl award for food safety leadership. Forget government, lead by example. Make your test results public, market food safety at retail so consumers can choose, and if people get sick from your product, you better be the first to tell the public.

A table of leafy green foodborne illness outbreaks is available at:

http://bites.ksu.edu/Outbreaks%20related%20to%20leafy%20greens%201993-2010

Subway sandwiches, where do you get your fresh ingredients? 34 sick with Subway Salmonella in 14 Illinois counties

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Fresh produce is yet again suspect as the Subway chain has voluntarily withdrawn lettuce, green peppers, red onion and tomatoes after a bunch of people got Salmonella at a bunch of Subway stores in Illinois.

Jared, this is not a weight loss strategy.

The Illinois Department of Public Health reports that 34 cases of Salmonella have been confirmed with this outbreak and all are recovering, of which 14 had been hospitalized.

Salmonella cases identified in this outbreak reported eating at Subway locations in 14 counties, including Sangamon, Schuyler, Christian, Bureau, LaSalle, Cass, Champaign, Peoria, Shelby, Warren, Macon, Ogle, Fulton and Tazewell. At this point in the investigation, no cases have reported eating at Subway restaurants in either northeastern or southernmost portions of Illinois. Illnesses are reported to have started between May 14 and May 25 and cases range in age from six-years to 88-years-old.

The specific type of Salmonella involved in this outbreak is a rare serotype called Hvittingfoss. Typically, only one to two cases of this type of Salmonella are seen in Illinois per year.

Salmonella found in salad, no one sick – yet

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Fresh Express, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chiquita Brands International, is voluntarily recalling a specific selection of Fresh Express Romaine-based ready-to-eat salads with the expired Use-by Dates of May 13th through May 16th and an "S" in the Product Code because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The recall extends only to products with these Use-by Dates and Product Codes and sold in the following states: Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Nebraska, Montana, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota

When was the test conducted, because there have been rumors of a positive circulating on the Intertubes? When was the positive confirmed? What strain of Salmonella is involved? Why go public now instead of earlier? How incompetent does the Fresh Express PR person have to be to ignore these questions in the press release?

Sounds like the Sponge Bob leafy greens cone of silence.

Where did dangerous E. coli come from? And why are weird forms in lettuce?

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Is Michael Pollan becoming the John Irving of food writing? Irving, the author of The World According to Garp and dozens of other whimsical tomes, is often characterized by excessive wordage – as in, great story, but could have been told with half the words.

Foodie Pollan shows the same characteristics in a longwinded reviewed of a bunch of new books about food politics – because what’s better than preparing and eating food than reading about it and watching others do it on television.

But there’s a nosestretcher alert hidden in all those words. Pollan writes,

“The 1993 deaths of four children in Washington State who had eaten hamburgers from Jack in the Box were traced to meat contaminated with E.coli O157:H7, a mutant strain of the common intestinal bacteria first identified in feedlot cattle in 1982.”

To clarify: E. coli O157:H7 belongs to a ?family of bacteria called verotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC) first recognized by researchers at Health Canada in 1977. VTEC is used interchangeably with Shiga-toxin producing E. coli, or STEC, and appear to have evolved tens of thousands of years ago.

In 1982, E. coli O157:H7 was first identified as a cause of human disease after 47 people in White City, Ore., and Traverse City, Mich., developed severe stomach disorders after eating McDonald’s hamburgers.

Twenty years later, more than 200 hundred different serotypes –members of the same bacterial strain but with different proteins on their outer shell — have been isolated from humans, foods and other sources. About 150 of these have been isolated from humans, and more than 50 have been shown to cause disease in humans.

Carlton Gyles (above, right, exactly as shown), a leading STEC researcher at the University of Guelph, wrote in 2007 review in the Journal of Animal Science:

Shiga toxin-producing E. coli refers to those strains of E. coli that produce at least 1 member of a class of potent cytotoxins called Shiga toxin. The STEC are also called verotoxin-producing E. coli. The names Shiga toxin (Stx), derived from similarity to a cytotoxin produced by Shigella dysenteriae serotype 1 (O’Brien et al., 1982), and verotoxin (VT), based on cytotoxicity for Vero cells (Konowalchuk et al., 1977), are used interchangeably. Those STEC that cause hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome are called enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC; Levine et al., 1987; Nataro and Kaper, 1998). Ruminants, especially cattle, constitute a vast reservoir.

The STEC have been characterized by a variety of methods, including serotyping, which is used extensively to categorize strains of E. coli (Blanco et al., 2004a,b; Prager et al., 2005). The serotype of an E. coli isolate is based on the O (Ohne) antigen determined by the polysaccharide portion of cell wall lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and the H (Hauch) antigen due to flagella protein. There are 174 O antigens (numbered 1 to 181, with numbers 31, 47, 67, 72, 93, 94, and 122 deleted) and 53 H antigens in the international serotyping scheme, with E. coli isolates having various combinations of O and H antigens (Scheutz et al., 2004). A high percentage of STEC serotypes are nonmotile (NM) mutants of strains with an H antigen. … Because of the importance of serotype O157:H7 in human disease, it is common to consider STEC serotypes in 2 major categories, O157 and nonO157.

Those non-O157 types are showing up in romaine lettuce. E. coli O145 has sickened some 50 people who consumed lettuce processed by Freshway Foods. However, additional testing revealed another STEC in a bag of Freshway lettuce, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has types as Escherichia coli O143:H34. That E. coli has not, according to the Columbus Dispatch, been linked to any known food-borne illness here or elsewhere, but it could sicken people.

Is whole lettuce safer than pre-cut greens in a bag?

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Douglas Powell

As the Spongebob cone of news silence dims any publicly available information about the romaine lettuce-linked E. coli O145 outbreak that has sickened more than 50 people, journalists find related stories to fill the void.

A common theme is – what can consumers do?

As I told CNN last week, the answer is, not much; fresh produce purchases are faith-based exercises in food safety.

Ask Douglas Powell, food safety expert and keeper of barfblog, whether he’d consider a salad of fresh romaine for dinner tonight.

If it’s lettuce from a grocery store, Powell’s answer is yes.

He bought some Wednesday, the day the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded to four states a current outbreak of potentially deadly food-borne illness linked to tainted lettuce.

But would Powell put the green stuff on his plate at a salad bar? Absolutely not.

That’s because a current recall of romaine lettuce involves companies that distribute to wholesale and food service outlets. And because "salad bars in general have the potential for lots more contact with lots of hands and people."

Let me clarify. The romaine lettuce I bought was in a bag. And I ate from a salad bar the next night.

Lettuce is overrated, and I prefer my own variation of a Greek salad without the lettuce – red pepper, olives, garlic, herbs, feta cheese, cucumber, tomatoes and whatever else may be around, marinated in olive oil and red wine vinegar. I also eat the greens, grow some of my own (which will be ready for harvest in about three days) and buy the bagged stuff.

Mike Doyle, a microbiologist who directs the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, told CNN.com, if you want to reduce risks, "buy whole lettuce and cut it yourself."

Often, the bacteria lurk in the outer leaves. Nothing is foolproof, he said, but safety goes up when you toss the outer leaves and wash your hands properly.

Food safety lawyer Bill Marler said consumers should not give up eating a good thing out of fear. He also suggested that whole lettuce was a safer option than the bagged variety.

"Mass-produced lettuce is big business. The public wants it. But think hard whether the convenience is worth the risk."

I’m not sure I buy the higher-risk with bagged greens argument. I get that cross-contamination can happen when leaves are thrown in the same dump (wash) tank, but really, how hard is it to use a chlorine monitor and keep the water clean so the leaves aren’t washed in a muck?

The Washington Post reported this week it is difficult to judge whether pre-cut produce has been linked to more outbreaks than whole vegetables because state and federal health officials don’t always specify whether the leafy greens associated with an outbreak were bagged or whole. But several multi-state outbreaks involving pre-cut produce in the last five years have raised concerns, most notably the 2006 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 associated with Dole bagged spinach that sickened 238 people and caused five deaths.

James Gorny, senior adviser for produce safety at the Food and Drug Administration, said bagged greens represent a disproportionate number of recalls, chiefly because they’re easier to identify than whole produce.

"When you buy a whole head of lettuce, you have no idea what the brand name is, or who the grower is. So tracing it back is that much harder."

But, he said, pre-cut produce is not inherently riskier than whole vegetables.

Dr. Doyle told the Post,

"I’ve been avoiding bagged lettuce for years. I’ve been concerned about this for some time."

Most processors of fresh-cut produce remove the outer leaves and core the heads of lettuce in the field, where cutting utensils can come into contact with soil and spread contamination from the dirt to the crop, Doyle said. In farming areas, especially in a region near cattle farms, it is not unusual to find E. coli in the soil.

In a study published last year in the Journal of Food Protection, Doyle and several colleagues contaminated coring devices with soil that contained E. coli O157:H7 — the most common E. coli strain associated with human illness — and showed how the bacteria spread from the coring equipment to heads of lettuce.

Washing the cored lettuce with a chlorine spray, a standard step, did not kill enough of the bacteria, the researchers found.

"In a processing plant, you’d have to have walls and clean floors. But here, they’re starting it right out in the dirt. It’s a very hazardous practice."

Once the bacteria attach to a lettuce leaf, "it’s very difficult to remove them," said Robert Gravani, a microbiologist at Cornell University. "We certainly want to increase our consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, but we really have to address some of these issues."

To accurately compare the food safety risks of whole greens versus bagged greens, a database would have to somehow be constructed so that a comparison of illnesses on a per capita meal or even ingredient basis could be made. That is, people are eating a whole lot more of the bagged stuff these days.

What I told CNN was, production practices, harvesting, packing, processing and food handling have all been linked to illnesses associated with leafy greens. E. coli can get into food through manure, contaminated water used during growing or harvesting, or improper food handling at a store, restaurant or home. It’s best to ask a lot of questions of the people who sell you the green stuff. Was the irrigation water tested? Do the pickers know to properly wash their hands?

Beyond that, the only way to kill bacteria is to cook it. But who wants to eat mushy romaine?

Hey, monocle man – is the recall still just a precaution? FDA confirms E. coli O145 in lettuce sickened over 50

Posted on May 11, 2010 by Douglas Powell

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its state health partners have confirmed that the strain of E. coli O145 detected by the New York State Public Health Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, in Albany, in an unopened bag of shredded romaine lettuce distributed by Freshway Foods, matches the outbreak strain of E. coli O145.

When Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio voluntarily recalled certain romaine lettuce products last week because of the possible connection to the E.coli O145 outbreak, financial chief Devon Beer told The Packer, “It’s really a precautionary step.”

What is it now?

FDA also announced last night that federal and state investigators are attempting to determine the point in the supply chain where the contamination occurred and are investigating a farm in the Yuma, Arizona area from which the romaine lettuce was harvested. Lettuce harvested from other geographic areas does not appear to be associated with this outbreak.

Vaughan Foods of Moore, Oklahoma, a supplier of processed and packaged lettuce for use at the foodservice level, received romaine lettuce harvested from the same farm in Yuma, Arizona; the company is recalling romaine lettuce with “use-by” dates of May 9 and May 10. The recalled romaine lettuce distributed by Vaughan Foods was sold to restaurants and food service facilities and were not available for purchase at retail by consumers.

Just in salad bars and salads bought by consumers at restaurants.

E. coli in lettuce: Spongebob containment dome silencing public communications

Posted on May 10, 2010 by Douglas Powell

New developments in the Freshway Foods romaine lettuce E. coli O145 outbreak:

1. Why the corporate finance dude shouldn’t be the public spokesthingy.

Freshway Foods recalled romaine lettuce products sold for food service outlets, wholesale, and in-store retail salad bars and delis last week after links with over 50 sick people in Ohio, Michigan and New York were established.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that multiple lines of evidence implicated shredded romaine lettuce from one processing facility as a source of infections in a multistate outbreak to which this recall may be related.

“The evidence includes preliminary results of product traceback investigations that indicate:
• the shredded romaine lettuce consumed by ill persons in three states originated from one processing facility;
• preliminary results of a case-control study in one state that found a statistically significant association between E. coli O145 infection;
• ingestion of lettuce from the same processing facility; and,
• recovery of E. coli O145 from an unopened package of shredded romaine lettuce from the same processing facility that was obtained from a food service entity associated with the outbreak.”

To which Freshway Foods vp of finance Devon Beer told The Packer,

“It’s really a precautionary step.”

No. It’s an outbreak and a public health step. At what point did FDA abandon epidemiology and require positive test results in an unopened package? How long were people eating potentially contaminated romaine lettuce at salad bars while regulators assembled sufficient evidence? What is the FDA policy on going public? (It doesn’t exist, at least not in any public form.) The six confirmed and suspected cases amongst students in New York’s Wappinger Central School District who came down with E. coli in April may want to know. And the lettuce they were served in the school cafeteria tested positive.

2. The suspect lettuce was grown in Yuma, Arizona

It was announced Friday that federal investigators were looking at a farm in Yuma, Ariz., as a possible source of the suspect romaine lettuce.

3. Look for pathogens and they will be found

In the wake of the E. coli O145 outbreak in romaine lettuce, a laboratory in Ohio started testing bags of romaine and found another E. coli which lead to a very private recall on Friday.

Misti Crane of the Columbus Dispatch reported this morning that the E. coli positive (strain not identified – dp) led a California company to recall about 1,000 cartons of produce that went to two customers who then processed the lettuce before sending it on to food-service establishments.

Amy Philpott, spokeswoman for Andrew Smith Co. in Spreckels, Calif., said none of the lettuce was sold in grocery stores and that only two food processors bought the cartons.

She said she didn’t know the names of those customers and did not know whether Freshway Foods in Sidney, Ohio, was one of them.

Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Kaleigh Frazier said the test was on an unopened bag of Freshway romaine shredded lettuce with a sell-by date of May 10, and her department is sending the sample on to federal officials for further testing.

Andrew Smith issued the recall privately on May 7 for lettuce that was shipped in mid-April, she said.

4. Our stuff is safe

As with the spinach outbreak of 2006, other regions are quick to proclaim the safety of their products, even in the absence of any data.

New Jersey State Agriculture Secretary Douglas Fisher said Friday that fresh romaine lettuce from New Jersey is safe.

"It certainly is an unfortunate coincidence of timing that this recall is occurring just as our farmers’ fresh romaine is coming into the market, but there is no connection between the two."

OK, but why not use the opportunity to explain the food safety steps taken by NJ lettuce growers to ensure microbiologically safe food, rather than saying we have a task force.

5. Blame consumers

Bob LaMendola of the Florida Sun Sentinel writes the E. coli is deadly but preventable by keeping raw meat separate from other foods, cooking meat to 165F, washing produce and hands vigorously.

This has nothing to do with romaine lettuce at salad bars.

After the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to California spinach, the 29th outbreak linked to leafy greens and after years of warning from FDA, California growers formed the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, which is supposed to have food safety performance standards. Yet the most noticeable achievement since the Agreement has been the containment cone of silence that has descended upon outbreaks involving leafy greens, and an apparent shift in FDA policy that sets epidemiology aside and requires positive samples in unopened product – a ridiculous standard since no one routinely tests for other Shiga-toxin producing E. coli like O145.

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Food safety at the salad bar

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Guest Blogger

(Long before an outbreak of E. coli O145 was linked to romaine lettuce served at salad bars, Food Safety Reporting student Reggie Stimpson (right, exactly as shown) set out to document food safety practices at some Manhattan (Kansas) salad bars. Reggie describes himself as new to food safety reporting but a vigorous eater. Currently a Kansas State University student living in Wichita, Kansas, he hopes to one day graduate and pay off his student loans before death – dp)

MANHATTAN, KS — On my 16th birthday my mom got me a job at a large grocery chain, and I continued to work there for another 6 years. During lunch breaks I often found myself at the salad bar looking for something light to keep me going during the remainder of my shift. At the time I knew very little about food safety.

I assumed if it was there for the taking, it had to be safe.

Assumptions can be dangerous in the world of food safety. How can anyone truly know how safe the food at the salad bar is? The procedures of the salad bar staff are unknown to customers. Furthermore, the customers themselves can cause safety problems.

Researchers at the University of California watched salad bars to see sanitary practices and found that 60 per cent of the customers committed at least one infraction in serving themselves at the salad bar. These included: spilling food around containers; dipping their fingers into salad dressings for a sample lick; eating from their plates while waiting in the serving line; and ducking their heads underneath the sneeze guard (clear plastic roof) for better access to the food.

All these are just the infractions that take place at the salad bar, but what about the safety of the raw ingredients?

How fresh are the salad bar items, and how long can food be out safely on the bar? What are the protections against airborne contaminants, and contamination of the bars’ contents by the workers and customers? And, most importantly, what are the criteria the answers to these questions are based on?

These are some of the questions I set out to find answers to. Some of those answers may surprise, some may be exactly as assumed.

According to former Dillons Grocery salad bar worker Shauntae Richardson it all depends on what you consider fresh.

"What we usually did with the fruits and vegetables is chop them up and place them into dated bins before storing them in a refrigerator," Richardson said. “The dates on the bins would be sort of like a expiration date, with four or five days being the cut-off. So on the third day it wasn‘t as fresh as it was on the first, but it was still fresh.”

The dated bins are replaced daily after the bar closes, a ritual meant to insure further safety according to Richardson.

“We would put them in a fresh, clean container so the food wouldn’t just sit in the same spot for days,” she explained. “Which would leave me with a mile-high stack of dishes to do every night.”

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) perishable fresh fruits and vegetables can be best maintained by storing in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40° F or below. Temperature is also an important component to salad bar safety. According to the FDA’s food safety website (http://foodsafety.gov/) bacteria grow most rapidly in the range of temperatures between 40 ° and 140 °F, doubling in number in as little as 20 minutes. This range of temperatures is often called the "Danger Zone."

“I would monitor temperatures every two hours to make sure [items] weren’t warm,” said Richardson. “At Dillons we didn’t have a “Danger Zone” we had the “Safe Zone” which was the ideal temperatures for certain foods.”

Fresh produce does not mean new produce.

“Before I actually worked in produce I thought fresh meant it was picked, washed, and cut that day,” said former Super Target produce worker Brandon Cornwell.

Dates and refrigeration are not the only tests of freshness used at salad bars. According to Cornwell workers are asked to use their senses: “We would touch it, smell it, look at it, and taste it everyday before we put it out.”

According to Richardson different products required different tests.

“When we had watermelon on the bar and it was getting close to expiring you would know because it would start to get real mushy,” she explained. “Pineapples you have to eat because they would still be firm, but taste sour.”

Richardson believes that eventually workers began to make assumptions on the freshness of food based on past experiences.

“Normally the strawberries would be the first to go bad. Then it was the melons, like honeydews, cantalope, and watermelons. So if the strawberries were still good I wouldn’t even check the melons yet,” she said. “And I wasn’t the only one.”

Even the most basic of food safety procedures, like wearing gloves and washing hands, can be taken for granted.

“I would see people wearing the same latex gloves all day,” Cornwell said. “We cut meat, like the chicken for the salad, and they had on the same gloves.”

Richardson agrees: “Yeah, I saw that. We had a sign that told you all the things you can touch that would force you to change gloves: meat, skin, hair, clothing… I probably changed gloves like 10 times a day. I was also given a lovely hair net to minimize the chance of hair getting into the food.”

When asked whether any of these procedures were backed up by research or proof neither former employee knew.

“I just did what I was told,” Cornwell explained.

For example, when used for food safety, hairnets serve two purposes. The first is to keep hair from contacting exposed food, clean and sanitized equipment, utensils and linens, or unwrapped single-service articles. The second is to keep worker’s hands out of their hair.

However many may be unaware there are different types of hairnets. O.R. caps provide maximum protection, making them ideal for use near exposed food products. Mesh hairnets release body heat, but are not for use in direct food contact areas. When asked, Richardson said she believed her hairnet was mesh, but wasn’t sure.

There was a time when I assumed if it was there for the taking, it had to be safe. I assumed that the salad bar was emptied daily, the contents thrown out, and every morning it was re-stocked with new items. I was wrong.

I would not eat at a restaurant if I knew the cook would not eat there. I would not ride in a plane that a pilot found unsafe. So it finally came time to ask the big question: would a former salad bar worker eat from the salad bar?

“One day out of the week we dumped everything on the bar in the trash and started again with all fresh products,” Richardson answered. “That was usually the only day I ate from the salad bar.”

Freshway Foods geographically challenged, tries to communicate about E. coli O145 crisis

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Freshway Foods has recalled romaine lettuce products sold for food service outlets, wholesale, and in-store retail salad bars and delis after links with over 50 sick people in Ohio, Michigan and New York were established. On May 5, 2010, the New York state Public Health Laboratory, Wadsworth Center, in Albany reported finding E. coli O145 in an unopened bag of Freshway Foods shredded romaine lettuce being recalled.

When the recall press release was issued by Freshway Foods around noon today, it said,

The recalled romaine lettuce products were sold to wholesalers and food service outlets in the following states east of the Mississippi river: Alabama, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. The recalled romaine products were also sold for distribution to in-store salad bars and delis for Kroger, Giant Eagle, Ingles Markets, and Marsh stores in the states listed.

Amy pointed out, since when in Kansas east of the Mississippi river? Someone else e-mailed me to say the same thing about Missouri. I called Freshway Foods and asked, why are Kansas and Missouri on the list, since they are west of the Mississippi (see, according to their own map, left, the company stops moving product at the river). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release about the outbreak repeated the same geographical nosestretcher. Given the states listed, should Dillons supermarket, in Manhattan (Kansas), owned by Kroger, be dumping their salad bar? The dude said, uh, good point, thanks, someone will get back to you.

That person just called, so at least she called back. Unfortunately, she seemed confused (understandable, given the situation, but that’s why everyone in the food system should be prepared for these sorts of things).

The nice lady said, we distribute a few other products into Missouri and Kansas but not romaine lettuce. … Oh, we do send romaine lettuce to a couple of distributors in Kansas City, Missouri.

Sigh.

FDA said today that multiple lines of evidence have implicated shredded romaine lettuce from one processing facility as a source of infections in a multistate outbreak to which this recall may be related.

To date, 19 confirmed cases of E. coli O145 illnesses have been reported from Michigan, Ohio, and New York. These illnesses include 12 individuals who have been hospitalized, and three with a potentially life threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

The evidence includes preliminary results of product traceback investigations that indicate:
• the shredded romaine lettuce consumed by ill persons in three states originated from one processing facility;
• preliminary results of a case-control study in one state that found a statistically significant association between E. coli O145 infection;
• ingestion of lettuce from the same processing facility; and,
• recovery of E. coli O145 from an unopened package of shredded romaine lettuce from the same processing facility that was obtained from a food service entity associated with the outbreak.

On to the harder questions. Did the contamination occur at the plant (unlikely) or in the field, and where was the stuff grown? It should be easy to figure out where the stuff was grown because, as Freshway proclaims on its website,

We can ensure complete product traceability all the way back to the field. We also exceed the minimum standards with over 30 audits per year conducted on our facilities and growers from firms like Cook and Thurber, Primus, as well as many of our customers’ own quality assurance teams.

Food safety starts on the farm. A table of 34 previous outbreaks involving leafy greens like lettuce and spinach is available at:

http://bites.ksu.edu/sites/default/files/lettuce-outbreaks-table_0.pdf

Romaine lettuce linked to E. coli O145 outbreak; over 50 people sick; where was lettuce grown?

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Douglas Powell

Romaine lettuce appears to be the vehicle for E. coli O145 which has sickened over 50 people, primarily at university campuses in Michigan, Ohio and New York.

Cross-contamination was unlikely in this scenario because students in different states got sick at the same time, and investigators said early on that beef was an unlikely vehicle.

Freshway Foods of Sidney, Ohio, just announced it is voluntarily recalling products containing romaine lettuce with a use by date of May 12 or earlier because they have the potential to be contaminated with Escherichia coli O145 bacteria. The products were sold under the Freshway brand and Imperial Sysco brand. The company is working with U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to inform consumers of this recall.
This recall includes romaine lettuce products sold by Freshway Foods for food service outlets, wholesale, and in-store retail salad bars and delis; no other products are involved. Freshway Foods does not produce bulk, prepackaged romaine or bagged salad mixes containing romaine for sale in supermarkets.

(Note, as Amy pointed out, I’m not sure what genius wrote this press release, but Kansas is west of the Mississippi river, not east. Does that mean Dillions in Manhattan, Kansas, owned by Kroger, should be cleaning out its salad bar?)

The recall comes after FDA informed Freshway Foods the afternoon of Wednesday, May 5 that a previously unopened product sample in a New York state laboratory tested positive for the bacteria. Freshway Foods traced the entire lot of romaine products and is advising customers to cease use and distribution of it immediately. This recall may be linked to an outbreak investigation in New York, Michigan, and Ohio.

Now, where was the romaine lettuce grown?

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