Tag Archives: market

Some Calif. lettuce may contain salmonella

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State health officials warned consumers today not to eat certain Fresh Choice red leaf lettuce sold at three Southern California grocers, due to possible Salmonella contamination.

The lettuce was sold between Oct. 20 and Nov. 1 at Canton Food Co. in Los Angeles, Cardenas Market and Numero Uno Market locations throughout
Southern California, according to California Department of Public Health director Dr. Mark Horton.

Fresh Choice Marketing of Oxnard produced the lettuce and made it available in grocery stores as whole head lettuce without identifying labels, Horton said.

Big egg farms don’t mean dirty egg farms, N.Y. Times version

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A salmonella outbreak that sickened thousands and led to the recall of 500 million eggs produced under filthy conditions by two Iowa farms led Elizabeth Weise of USA Today to report on an Illinois farm that produces over 800,000 eggs per day yet has never found a salmonella-positive test result.

This morning, N.Y. Times reporter William Neuman examines the conditions at Hi-Grade Egg Farm in Indiana and finds that safe eggs can be produced on a large scale.

“(The) droppings from 381,000 chickens are carried off along a zig-zagging system of stacked conveyor belts with powerful fans blowing across them.

"The excrement takes three days to travel more than a mile back and forth, and when it is finally deposited on a gray, 20-foot high mountain of manure, it has been thoroughly dried out, making it of little interest to the flies and rodents that can spread diseases like salmonella poisoning.

“Standing by the manure pile on a recent afternoon, Robert L. Krouse, the president of Midwest Poultry Services, the company that owns the Hi-Grade farm, took a deep breath. The droppings, he declared, smelled sweet, like chocolate"

Mr. Krouse, who is also chairman of the United Egg Producers, an industry association, said

“We’ve had to completely change the way we look at things. Thirty years ago, farms had flies and farms had mice, everything was exposed to everything else. They just all happily lived together. You can’t work that way anymore"

Today the hens on Mr. Krouse’s farms come from hatcheries certified to provide chicks free of salmonella. The young birds are vaccinated to create resistance to the bacteria. And then steps are taken to keep them from being exposed to it, primarily by controlling mice and flies that may carry salmonella or spread it around.

Big ag doesn’t mean bad ag. Organic or conventional, local or global, big or small, there are good farmers and bad farmers. The good ones know all about food safety and continuously work to minimize levels of risk.

Unfortunately, consumers have no way of knowing which eggs or foods were produced by microbiologically prudent farmers and which were produced on dumps. Market microbial food safety at retail so consumers can actually use their buying power and choose safer food.
 

Salmonella in eggs; DeCoster and Son go to DC

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There’ll be the usual posturing, handwringing and contrition for the cameras at today’s Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.

Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports this morning that Jack DeCoster and his son, Peter, will apologize at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee meeting today to the 1,608 confirmed victims of a salmonella outbreak and pledge not to resume selling fresh eggs until their farms are free from disease.

“While we always believed we were doing the right thing, it is now very clear that we must do more,” said Peter DeCoster, who is chief operating officer of the Wright County Egg operations, which his father owns.

In a 10-page statement obtained by The Des Moines Register, the men point to a feed ingredient purchased from an outside supplier as the likely source of the salmonella contamination. Federal investigators have reported finding salmonella in several areas of the farms in addition to the feed mill.

This is a terrible strategy. Blaming others and failing to outline what DeCoster and Son were actually doing in terms of testing and other steps to manage the risk of salmonella – before the outbreak — will be a rhetorical playground for even the most addle-minded Congressional-types.

It’ll be like angry parents scolding a teenager who says, sorry, I won’t do it again.

The accused is sorry he got caught.

Again.

The N.Y. Times documented this morning the 1987 salmonella-in-eggs outbreak that killed nine and sickened 500, linked to farms owned by … Austin Jack DeCoster.

Farms tied to Mr. DeCoster were a primary source of Salmonella enteritidis in the United States in the 1980s, when some of the first major outbreaks of human illness from the bacteria in eggs occurred, according to health officials and public records. At one point, New York and Maryland regulators believed DeCoster eggs were such a threat that they banned sales of the eggs in their states.

How many others were sickened by DeCoster and Son eggs over the intervening 23 years, in the absence of an outbreak?

Government’s hopeless.

Market microbial food safety at retail so I, as a consumer, have a choice, so I can reward those egg producers who effectively manage salmonella – before there’s an outbreak.
 

Big egg farms don’t mean dirty egg farms.

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Newly released reports pointing to years of positive salmonella tests at an Iowa egg facility have baffled some experts and egg producers.

Elizabeth Weise writes in today’s USA Today that Congressional investigators have obtained records that show Wright County Egg had evidence of even more problems than filth and vermin, as reported by the Food and Drug Administration last month. The records show that over the past three years, Wright County, the company at the center of the outbreak that sickened about 1,519 people and led to the recall of 550 million eggs, had multiple positive tests for salmonella in its plant that it did not report.

Numbers that high over that time period indicate "the environmental contamination is widespread on these farms," says Darrell Trampel, professor of production animal medicine at Iowa State University in Ames. "Maybe six to 12 positives … wouldn’t be surprising, but 73 is relatively high."

Besides, "if he’s getting repeated positives back on consecutive tests, that tells you that you’re not getting to the root cause of what the problem is," says Patricia Curtis, director of the poultry products safety program at Auburn University in Alabama.

Dave Thompson, owner of Pearl Valley Eggs in Pearl City, Ill., who produces 800,000 to 850,000 eggs a day, seven days a week, and was featured in a Weise report last month, says he can’t imagine getting numbers like Wright County’s. "I’ve never had a positive, and I test all the time," he says.

Under FDA rules put into place in July, large egg production facilities that have positive tests for salmonella enteritidis will be required to test 1,000 eggs four times at two-week intervals. "If even one egg tests positive, it’s mandatory that those eggs … be pasteurized," Trampel says.

Big ag doesn’t mean bad ag. Organic or conventional, local or global, big or small, there are good farmers and bad farmers. The good ones know all about food safety and continuously work to minimize levels of risk.

Consumers have no way of knowing which eggs or foods were produced by microbiologically prudent farmers and which were produced on dumps. Market microbial food safety at retail so consumers can choose.
 

Canadian farmers say they are misunderstood; market the fab food safety instead

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This should make everyone feel all warm and fuzzy about Canadian farmers: according to a new poll (which is nonsensical anyway) Canadian producers think governments overreact to food safety incidences and overburden them with rules to prevent the spread of diseases on their farms.

Sarah Schmidt of Postmedia News reports that a summary of the focus groups led by Ekos Research Associates Inc. on behalf of Agriculture Canada said,

"Those who were being most affected by these measures felt that governments and retail industry giants had overreacted in the face of mad cow and other food safety incidences, as well as bowing to pressure from the United States and other countries."

This from the country – that would be Canada — that initially resisted the ruminant protein in ruminant feed ban in 1996, had lousy enforcement of said ban, leading to 15 or so cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy over the past decade, and was so delusional about the potential for listeria in cold cuts that it created an outbreak climate culminating in 22 deaths in 2008.

Further, "consumers do not have sufficient basic information about agricultural products. And if they did, they would be more likely to buy Canadian and to buy products grown locally.”

I get that other countries can cut corners and flood the market, and labeling is confusing, but stop whining. Tell retailers about your fabulous food safety programs and standards. Market your Canadian product and back it up with food safety data, not some nostalgic allegiance to maple syrup and beavertails.

Salmonella positives on egg farm for past 2 years; why are mortals only finding out now

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Salmonella test results for any egg farm should be publicly available to whoever wants them – on the label, at point-of-sale, on a web site, whatever – if that egg producer wants to gain public trust and confidence. I get the whole good-egg-project concept I watch incessantly on Sesame Street but I’d rather my kid didn’t barf from salmonella-contaminated eggs. I’ll do my part, but I want producers to do their part, and advertize the results so I can vote with my money.

A bunch of media outlets are reporting this afternoon that congressional investigators revealed today lab tests found hundreds of cases of salmonella contamination at an Iowa farm in a nearly two-year period before the outbreak that prompted a massive recall of eggs this summer.

Wright County Egg is one of two farms at the center of the massive recall. In a letter to its owner, Austin "Jack" DeCoster, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said tests confirmed 426 cases of salmonella contamination between September 2008 and the past July, and 73 were "potentially" positive for the strain of the disease involved in this year’s outbreak.

The committee’s Democratic leaders asked DeCoster to explain those findings when he appears at a September 21 hearing. They also called on him to explain why those test reports weren’t included in material the company has provided to Congress so far, and demanded that the company produce "all documents relating to your response to the test results" by Wednesday.

Iowa State University expert Darrell Trampel told the DesMoines Register that is “quite a high level of contamination.” Ideally, farms would have no positive test results for the bacteria, but it would be typical to have half a dozen to a dozen over that period at the most. The test results are from tests of areas around the hen houses rather than of the eggs themselves.

Why does it take over 1,500 illnesses for such data to be publicly released? And what would a day of raw-egg revelations be without another food porn recipe in, this time, the N.Y. Times, for food-processor mayonnaise, using raw eggs.

I expect continued silence from the egg types.

Egg inspectors failed to raise alarms; government sucks, market microbial food safety at retail

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As the number of salmonella-in-eggs illnesses climbed to 1,519, the Wall Street Journal reported last night that U.S. Department of Agriculture experts found growing sanitary problems including bugs and overflowing trash earlier this year on the Iowa farm at the center of the national egg recall, but didn’t notify health authorities.

The problems laid out in USDA daily sanitation reports viewed by The Wall Street Journal underscore the regulatory gaps that may have contributed to delays in discovering salmonella contamination.

USDA was the only federal body with a regular presence at Wright, but it says it wasn’t responsible for safety. USDA graders were at a Wright egg-packing plant seven days a week to oversee designations such as "Grade A" on egg cartons.

The report validates concerns raised by Alison Young of USA Today last week.

Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he had raised questions with Agriculture Secretary (and former Iowa governor – dp) Tom Vilsack about how his department forwards food-safety concerns, adding,

"In my oversight work, I’ve seen far too many federal agencies working in silos, failing to communicate with each other. … Just because food safety isn’t ‘my job’ doesn’t mean it should be ignored."

Would a single-food inspection agency or some federal legislation have empowered the egg graders or the FDAers to do more to limit the salmonella outbreak? Doubtful.

The comments echo those of Craig Wilson, head of food safety at Costco, who told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register that Costco had auditors at Wright farms to evaluate animal-welfare condition, adding, "There are a lot of guys going, ‘Hey, wait a minute. They’re finding stuff and our guys were there and they didn’t see it.’ "

In an outbreak situation, especially one with over 1,500 confirmed illnesses, people pay attention to food safety basics. The challenge is to get everyone to pay attention in the absence of an outbreak – it’s that prevention thing.

Which goes to food safety culture and marketing at retail.

David LaCrone of KC Free Press and I chatted about this a couple of weeks ago while a bunch of my kids were with us on the Island. I sound particularly deranged. I blame teenagers.

Dave LaCrone: What do you think the point of the egg recall issue is? I’ve heard people decrying factory farming and mass distribution; some people say “I’m glad I eat organic eggs.” What is your perspective?

Douglas Powell: That has nothing to do with food safety and things that make people barf. Your backyard eggs are going to have salmonella just as much as your factory farm does. All I’ve seen is political and legal opportunism at this point. People take whatever they see and use it to fit their political lens, whether it’s “I want federal legislation passed,” or “I want organic food,” and there’s really not a whole lot of discussion of biology.

DL: In other words, these kinds of risks are inherent pretty much in any kind of egg all the time.

DP: Yeah, and they always have been. Since the recall, you have all these consumer warnings that say you should always eat fully cooked eggs. But you look at the egg people’s literature and they have loving pictures of hollandaise sauce and poached eggs that are barely cooked. They come out now and say “no we’ve always said that” and I’m like “bullshit, you did!”

DL: Is there anything we or the government can do?

DP: I have low expectations of government. I find it amusing that people want to give government more authority, the same people who screwed up Katrina, screwed up the oil well. Why is that a solution? I don’t get it.

DL: Well then, do you think corporate self-regulation is a solution?

DP: No, it’s not an either/or. My solution would be the buying power of individual consumers. What I would like to see is these egg companies or spinach producers, whoever … advertise their microbial food safety record right there on the package. I don’t care if it’s natural, if there’s a picture of a farm or if it was lovingly raised. I want to know if it’s gonna make me barf.

There are billions of meals served every year where people don’t get sick, so obviously they are doing something right. Why not market it? But they won’t because that would imply that other food is unsafe. Well guess what? Other food is unsafe. The best way the consumers can act is through their buying power. Right now they are doing it through the B.S. organic stuff. They are being held hostage by people who don’t make direct claims about food safety but hint at it. Why else do you think they buy natural or local?

DL: Well, I think there are a lot of reasons but I do think it’s a burgeoning thing with parents of young children, especially upper middle-class parents that think that it’s more healthy and safer to eat organic.

DP: Yeah, I have a 20-month-old, does that mean I’m a bad parent for shopping at a grocery store?

DL: I have to ask if your knowledge bleeds over into your choice of where you eat and what to eat? Are there foods you won’t buy or you won’t eat when you go out?

DP: Not much. I have five kids so I have been doing this for a while. I go to the biggest supermarkets I can find because they usually have the quality assurance programs that are demanding of their suppliers: “If you’re gonna sell food in my Wal-Mart you have to meet these microbial standards.” I know the head of food safety at Wal-Mart, they have a very good program. Does anyone who goes to Wal-Mart know that? No.
 

Iowa Senator says market should punish egg violators; hard to tell eggs apart at retail

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I can get dolphin-free tuna and animal-friendly beef and table eggs raised under all kinds of conditions, but how can I avoid eggs from salmonella offenders? There’s so much reselling and rebranding at retail that the brand name is often meaningless.

Iowa Senator Chuck “Chuck” Grassley told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register today that the government probably can’t shut down egg-beater Jack DeCoster short of finding criminal activity, but, “the marketplace is making the determination if the law doesn’t. Probably in this case the company may be hurt in the marketplace to the extent to which people are going to look and not buy eggs that have the word W-R-I-G-H-T on it,” referring to the name of Jack DeCoster’s Galt-based company, Wright County Egg.

Brasher notes though that DeCoster eggs have been packaged under a variety of names, including supermarket brands and the names of competing egg producers such as Sparboe Farms, who used Wright County Egg to augment their supplies.

Grassley also called on the Senate Democratic leadership to pass a food-safety bill that would increase the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of other segments of the food industry, including fruit and vegetable production.
 

Government’s still not that into you; target food safety efforts using pocketbook power

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There’s a wonderful moment of clarity in the 2004 biopic, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, depicting the famed golfer’s first trip to the British Open at St. Andrews in 1921, where he withdrew in frustration. His caddy, Angus, says,

“Do you know the definition of insanity Bobby? It’s when you do the same thing over and over and expect a different result.”

Bobby Jones was trying to hit a ball out of a sand trap; lots of well-meaning people are trying to improve food safety in the U.S. by focusing on the federal government, but the ball keeps rolling back into that pot-bunker.

Latest to the plate is Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, who wrote in the New York Times Sunday,

“if the Senate fails to pass the food safety legislation now awaiting a vote, tens of thousands of American children will become needlessly and sometimes fatally ill.”

Whether the Senate acts or not will have little effect on kids barfing from dangerous food.

Schlosser roles out the standard fairtytales about Upton Sinclair and the role his book, The Jungle, had on inspiring The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, but food safety was improving in previous decades, driven largely by the same two factors driving global food safety improvements today – technology and trade.

Something the Chinese are now discovering.

Most food purchases are based on faith. That’s why an extensive series of rules, regulations and punishments emerged beginning in 12th century Mediterranean areas, long before Upton Sinclair came along. But who knows if the rules actually make a difference.

Big or small, local or global there are microbiological basics with any kind of food production system that require attention and diligence.

Yet there are so many examples of food safety failures despite government oversight – peanut paste, pot pies and 2005’s E. coli outbreak in Wales – Angus may ask, what?

I generally ignore food safety chatter from Washington. If a proposal does emerge, such as the creation of a single food inspection agency or the passage of this Senate bill, I ask, Will it actually make food safer? Will fewer people get sick?

The American-Statesman in Texas reported this morning that with the government and regulators making little food safety progress, individuals and businesses are taking on the responsibility themselves.

Whole Foods spokeswoman Kate Lowery said,

"We see the law as a minimum requirement, and we are always proactive and look at areas to raise the bar. Our approach is more of a preventative one, and we work with our suppliers and at the store level to ensure we meet and exceed what is required to stay ahead."

And Whole Foods has crappy food safety.

I admire people who can tell compelling stories. I also admire the food safety types throughout the world who work diligently to deliver food that won’t make people barf.

Government has something to do with it. However the best producers, processors, retailers and restaurants will go above and beyond government standards – and brag about it. The best provide public access to food safety test results, provide warnings to populations at risk, insist on mandatory training for anyone who touches food, and market food safety at retail, to create a food safety culture all the way back to the farm.

The best organizations will use their own people to demand ingredients from the best suppliers; use a mixture of encouragement and enforcement to foster a food safety culture; and use technology to be transparent — whether it’s live webcams in the facility or real-time test results on the website — to help restore the shattered trust with the buying public.

And the best won’t sit around lamenting the failures of government: they’ll just do it.

Bobby Jones adjusted his game to the Old Course, fell in love, and designed the Master’s in Augusta Georgia as a tribute to St. Andrews. Those lobbying government about food safety rules may also want to adjust their game: governments don’t make safe food – people do.
 

Foodborne illness connected to Iowa farmer’s market?

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Something’s going at a farmers’ market in east-central Iowa, with reports surfacing that more than 10 people are sick with foodborne illness, possibly related to a freshly prepared fruit and vegetable product sold at the market.

The Iowa Department of Public Health reminded people visiting a farmer’s market to only buy from vendors who keep freshly prepared fruit and vegetable products cold.

Once you buy the food make sure you store them in a cold place, and eat them within a few days.