Tag Archives: on-farm

Food safety karma?

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I spoke with my friend, farmer Jeff Wilson yesterday.

We were in the trenches together as genetically engineered foods were introduced in Canada in the late 1990s, along with other folks.

hockey.team.apr.14Jeff also was a stalwart for on-farm food safety for fresh produce, long before it was fashionable.

He was also a pain in the ass.

But most people are.

Now I’m watching Amy and Ben go through promotion and tenure, and glad I’m not playing that game anymore, but enthusiastic for their ideas and ideals.

I’m going to the rink tomorrow.

Risk factors associated with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes contamination of produce fields

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Cornell graduate student Laura Strawn and colleagues write in this month’s Applied and Environmental Microbiology (October 2013, volume 79, issue 20):

Identification of management practices associated with preharvest pathogen contamination of produce fields is crucial to the laura.strawndevelopment of effective Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs).

A cross-sectional study was conducted to (i) determine management practices associated with a Salmonella or Listeria monocytogenes positive field and (ii) quantify the frequency of these pathogens in irrigation and non-irrigation water sources. Over five weeks, 21 produce farms in New York State were visited. Field-level management practices were recorded for 263 fields, and 600 environmental samples (soil, drag swab, and water) were collected and analyzed for Salmonella and L. monocytogenes. Management practices were evaluated for their association with the presence of a pathogen-positive field. Salmonella and L. monocytogenes were detected in 6.1% and 17.5% of fields (n=263), and 11% and 30% of water samples (n=74), respectively. The majority of pathogen-positive water samples were from non-irrigation surface water sources. Multivariate analysis showed that manure application within a year laura.strawn.onfarm.oct.13 increased the odds of a Salmonella-positive field (odds ratio [OR] 16.7), while presence of a buffer zone had a protective effect (OR 0.1). Irrigation (within 3 days of sample collection, OR 6.0), reported wildlife observation (within 3 days of sample collection, OR 6.1), and soil cultivation (within 7 days of sample collection, OR 2.9) all increased the likelihood of an L. monocytogenes-positive field.

Our findings provide new data that will assist growers with science-based evaluation of their current GAPs and implementation of preventive controls that reduce the risk of preharvest contamination.

Lowering loads; fresh produce food safety begins on farm; researchers identify factors influencing E. coli contamination of spinach prior to harvest

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A team of researchers from Texas and Colorado has identified a variety of factors that influence the likelihood of E. coli contamination of spinach on farms prior to harvest. Their research is published in the July 2013 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

“Microbial contamination of produce seems strongly influenced by the time since the last irrigation, the workers’ personal hygiene and the field’s use spinachprior to planting of produce,” says first author Sangshin Park of Texas A&M University, College Station. “These factors, together with the role of weather in produce contamination should be the targets of future research efforts to design cost-effective strategies for control of produce contamination.”

E. coli contamination of spinach on farms in Colorado and Texas was 172 times more likely if the produce field was within 10 miles of a poultry farm, and 64 times more likely if irrigated by pond water, says Park.

As E. coli is commonly used as an indicator of fecal contamination with food-borne pathogens, the practice of hygiene-availability of portable toilets and hand-washing stations for workers in the fields -and the absence of grazing or hay production on the fields prior to planting spinach, reduced the risk seven-fold.

Other potential risk factors tested in the study included numbers of workers, farm size, organic vs. conventional production, the use of chemical fertilizers, compost, and manure, says Park. The researchers assayed 955 spinach samples from 12 farms in the two states, finding that generic E. coli was present on 63 of them (6.6 percent).

Of particular note, the researchers tested their statistical model for spinach contamination to determine how accurately it was able to pinpoint the level of contamination. “The assessment of the predictive performance of a developed statistical model is largely omitted from food safety studies,” cow.poop2says Park. Their methodology may serve as a useful template for future investigations of contamination on farms, he says.

“Because produce is commonly consumed raw, it would be best to prevent pre-harvest contamination by food-borne pathogens all together or at least to reduce it,” says Park.

Source: Park S, Navratil S, Gregory A, et al. Generic Escherichia coli Contamination of Spinach at the Preharvest Stage: Effects of Farm Management and Environmental Factors. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2013.

Berry, greenhouse growers work on food safety

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The California Strawberry Commission is in the midst of its second food safety risk assessment.

The Packer reports the commission itself — not third-party auditors — is doing the assessment, following the harvest gradually from south to north. The work began in late 2011, and should be completed sometime this year.

Groups like Ontario greenhouse veggie growers require that all members must pass an annual third-party food safety audit.

Third-party audits alone can be a useful tool but not enough. Some individual greenhouse operations participate in additional auditing and traceability schemes, but not everyone; and any commodity is only as good as its worst grower.

The California strawberry types are focusing on field issues such as water, wildlife, compost and labor because there are the major potential sources of foodborne illness singled out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and others.

Carolyn O’Donnell, communications director for the Watsonville-based commission, said, “We have a hand-harvested crop, so we’re dependent on making sure farm workers who are the last people to touch strawberries before consumers do are aware they have a real important step in the food safety process.”

The same group of commission representatives is doing the assessment in every region of the state.

On its website, the commission recently expanded its food safety section at www.calstrawberry.com/members/fsp.asp.

The commission is also working with berry growers in Oregon and Washington to support their efforts in food safety education.

Following a deadly E. coli outbreak in July 2011 that was the result of a deer incursion in an Oregon strawberry field, growers in the state decided to take preventive measures in preparation for the 2012 season.

Laura Barton, trade development manager with the Oregon Department of Agriculture said, “It doesn’t matter what size grower is involved. It only takes one berry to impact the entire industry. One of the challenges we identified when we started talking about this was how to find all of the smaller growers. It’s not like there is a list.”

Redux: On-farm food safety for strawberry growers

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On June 12, 1996, Dr. Richard Schabas, chief medical officer of Ontario (that’s a province in Canada), issued a public health advisory on the presumed link between consumption of California strawberries and an outbreak of diarrheal illness among some 40 people in the Metro Toronto area. The announcement followed a similar statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Houston, Texas, which was investigating a cluster of 18 cases of cyclospora illness among oil executives.

Turns out it was Guatemalan raspberries, and no one was happy.

The initial, and subsequent, links between cyclospora and strawberries or raspberries in 1996 was based on epidemiology, a statistical association between consumption of a particular food and the onset of disease. The Toronto outbreak was first identified because some 35 guests attending a May 11, 1996 wedding reception developed the same severe, intestinal illness, seven to 10 days after the wedding, and subsequently tested positive for cyclospora. Based on interviews with those stricken, health authorities in Toronto and Texas concluded that California strawberries were the most likely source. However, attempts to remember exactly what one ate two weeks earlier is an extremely difficult task; and larger foods, like strawberries, are recalled more frequently than smaller foods, like raspberries.

By July 18, 1996, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control declared that raspberries from Guatemala — which had been sprayed with pesticides mixed with water that could have been contaminated with sewage containing cyclospora — were the likely source of the cyclospora outbreak, which ultimately sickened about 1,000 people across North America. Guatemalan health authorities and producers vigorously refuted the charges. The California Strawberry Commission estimated it lost $15-20 million in reduced strawberry sales.

The California strawberry growers decided the best way to minimize the effects of an outbreak – real or alleged – was to make sure all their growers knew some food safety basics and there was some verification mechanism. The next time someone said, “I got sick and it was your strawberries,” the growers could at least say, “We don’t think it was us, and here’s everything we do to produce the safest product we can.”

That was essentially the prelude for FDA publishing its 1998 Guidance for Industry: Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. We had already started down the same path, and took those guidelines, as well as others, and created an on-farm food safety program for all 220 growers producing tomatoes and cucumbers under the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers banner. And set up a credible verification system.

In Aug. 2011, Oregon health officials confirmed that deer droppings caused an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to strawberries that sickened 14 people and killed one. William Keene, senior epidemiologist with Oregon Public Health, said the outbreak strain turned up in samples from fields in three separate locations.

So, in the same way spinach, lettuce and tomato growers have reinvented their food safety pasts, commissions representing berry growers in Oregon, Washington and California have banded together to promote good food safety practices.

The efforts begin this spring with education and training of growers and farm workers on proper handling of fresh fruit, according to a news release.

The best producers or manufacturers can do is diligently manage and mitigate risks and be able to prove such diligence in the court of public opinion; and they’ll do it before the next outbreak.

Fresh produce-associated outbreaks: A call for HACCP on farms?

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Jan Mei Soon, Louise Manning, Paul Davies and Richard Baines write in the British Food Journal that a desktop study of recent outbreaks and recalls that have occurred in the US and EU was undertaken with a view to determining the produce items implicated and factors causing the emergence of outbreaks. The question, ‘A call for HACCP on farms?’ is explored.

Minimally processed fresh-cut produce, represents a particular challenge to food safety. The research has highlighted the need to mitigate risk at all stages but with specific emphasis at the pre-farm gate stage. A more comprehensive and integrated approach to risk management is arguably needed. A call for HACCP on the farm or farm food safety management system may be warranted in future if fresh produce outbreaks continue to rise. However, further research is needed to establish the guidelines of HACCP adoption at the farm level. At present, the rigorous adoption of GAP as a pre-requisite and the practice of HACCP-based plans is a good indicator of the importance of pre-harvest safety.

Listeria in cantaloupe; 146 sick including 30 dead 1 miscarriage; will talk of change translate into action with meaningful verification?

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For those counting – which seems like a bizarrely gruesome fetish – the final tally for the listeria-in-cantaloupe outbreak of 2011 is 146 persons sick from 28 states, including 30 dead and one miscarriage.

Far more important is – will the cantaloupe industry in Colorado and elsewhere become overtly proactive, seeking the best research on the causes, prevention, and how to translate guidelines into actual actions in the field – where contamination starts.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control today issued its final report on the Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis Linked to Whole Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms, Colorado—United States, 2011.

(Sidenote: In the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to Romaine lettuce served at Schnucks, CDC spokeswoman Lola Russell told The Packer yesterday the agency leaves announcements regarding names of growers and distributors to the regulatory agencies – state health departments and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But it had no problem fingering Jensen Farms? Maybe because the Food and Drug Administration named Jensen Farms on Sept. 14 it was open season after that. Maybe CDC was trying to protect other cantaloupe growers. Maybe they’d like to protect other Romaine lettuce growers? Is there a written policy on when to finger a farm? Consistency in communications helps build trust.)

From the CDC cantaloupe report:

A total of 146 persons infected with any of the four outbreak-associated strains of Listeria monocytogenes were reported to CDC from 28 states.

Among persons for whom information was available, reported illness onset ranged from July 31, 2011 through October 27, 2011. Ages ranged from <1 to 96 years, with a median age of 77 years. Most ill persons were over 60 years old. Fifty-eight percent of ill persons were female. Among the 144 ill persons with available information on whether they were hospitalized, 142 (99%) were hospitalized.

Thirty deaths were reported: Colorado (8), Indiana (1), Kansas (3), Louisiana (2), Maryland (1), Missouri (3), Nebraska (1), New Mexico (5), New York (2), Oklahoma (1), Texas (2), and Wyoming (1). Among persons who died, ages ranged from 48 to 96 years, with a median age of 82.5 years. In addition, one woman pregnant at the time of illness had a miscarriage.

Seven of the illnesses were related to a pregnancy; three were diagnosed in newborns and four were diagnosed in pregnant women. One miscarriage was reported.

Blame the farm, not the shopper for listeria-in-cantaloupe; little consumers could do; any food is only as good as its worst grower

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msnbc reports now that federal investigators have identified dirty equipment, faulty sanitation and bad storage practices at a Colorado farm as the likely cause of a cantaloupe listeria outbreak that has killed 25 people, top U.S. food safety experts say there’s one actor in this deadly drama that shouldn’t be blamed: The consumer.

"There’s nothing consumers could have done," said Dr. Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.

No amount of washing, scrubbing, bleaching or peeling would have cleaned cantaloupes contaminated by Jensen Farms’ packing practices enough to remove listeria bacteria that has sickened at least 123 people and killed 25 in the deadliest outbreak in a quarter-century.

The cold, moist environment maintained over time is exactly what listeria needs to thrive, said Dr. Mike Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy and a food safety expert at the University of Minnesota.

The bacteria clearly contaminated a huge proportion of the more than 310,000 cases of cantaloupe — between 1.5 million and 4.5 million fruit — that were recalled by Jensen Farms in mid-September, said Powell.

"Given that 25 people are dead, this was a massive contamination to have that impact," he said.

It’s not clear whether people were infected by bacteria that clung to the fruit’s porous, bumpy rind, whether the germs somehow migrated into the flesh of the fruit, or whether people spread contamination through the fruit by slicing it with a knife, Powell said. Good hygiene and food safety practices can lessen the chance of infection, but the contamination shouldn’t be there in the first place.

"The idea that this is the consumer’s responsibility is just nonsense," he said. "What’s missing is any verification that individual farmers are doing what they’re supposed to be doing."

"Don’t rely on paperwork if your brand relies on selling safe food," Powell said. "Any commodity is only as good as its worst grower."

Newsflash: outbreaks pose biggest challenge to produce industry

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The 1996 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in Odwalla unpasteurized juice first plunged the fresh produce folks into public crisis mode, much like the Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak of 1993 did for hamburger.

Cyclospora in Guatemalan raspberries in 1996 – it wasn’t California strawberries — added to the public consciousness that fresh could also be risky.

From 1996-2006, almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry, yet what author Malcolm Gladwell would call a tipping point — "a point at which a slow gradual change becomes irreversible and then proceeds with gathering pace" — in public awareness about produce-associated risks did not happen until the spinach E. coli O157:H7 outbreak in the fall of 2006.

At least not to the produce-industry leadership who decided those 500 other outbreaks aren’t worth mentioning.

That produce industry leaders snoozed for a decade was reinforced, probably unintentionally, by Bryan Silbermann, president of the U.S. Produce Marketing Association during his Oct. 15, 2011 state-of-the-industry address.

Silbermann said recent weeks felt “eerily” like the lead-up to the PMA summit in 2006, when an outbreak from spinach contaminated with E. coli “hung like a black cloud over us.” In the past month, listeria-tainted cantaloupes from Colorado farm led to at least 23 deaths in 12 states.

Preventing similar outbreaks requires holding accountable everyone involved in growing, shipping and selling fresh produce and not taking shortcuts, Silbermann said.

“It does not matter whether you grow ship or sell along this supply chain, I want you to consider some fundamental truths we must accept as we look for ways to turn this tide around. It must be turned around. Our future depends on it.”

“We have come so far, yet we find ourselves in the same situation in 2006,” Silbermann said.

Or 1996.

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

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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.