Tag Archives: organic

Hummus recalled for listeria in New Zealand

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A popular brand of hummus has been recalled in New Zealand because it may contain listeria.

Life Health Food (LHF) announced yesterday that they were recalling Lisa’s Organic Hummus Roasted Garlic dip with an expiry date of May 11 2012, because it had tested positive for listeria during routine testing.

About 300 tubs of the hummus have already been sold, virtually all in the South Island.

There have been no reports of illness as of yet, but consumers who felt unwell after eating the product were advised to seek medical advice.

 

Moonstruck Organic Tomme d’Or cheeses from BC may contain Listeria

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The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC, that’s in Canada) is warning the public not to consume Tomme d’Or cheese manufactured by Moonstruck Organic Cheese located on Saltspring Island. Other types of cheeses produced by Moonstruck Organic Cheese are not affected by this advisory.

This health alert is the result of a routine sampling program by the BCCDC and further investigation by the manufacturer which revealed that samples of the finished products contained Listeria monocytogenes. Affected products include all lot numbers of Tomme d’Or cheese. In order to ensure the health and safety of consumers, a photo of the product is provided below so the public can easily identify the product. The manufacturer is fully cooperating and assisting with the investigation.

This product was sold at various retailers throughout British Columbia, and anyone who may have purchased this recalled cheese should not consume it, and discard or return it to their place of purchase. The BCCDC is concerned that this cheese product may still be in the homes of consumers as these cheeses can be stored and consumed well beyond the product’s best before date. Listeria, if present, will grow to high numbers even if the cheese has been stored in the refrigerator. Food contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes may not look or smell spoiled.

Currently there are no illnesses linked to this product.

Certain Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds – Sunflower may contain Salmonella

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At least the seeds were recalled before someone got sick – unless there are sick people and regulators aren’t saying. They also aren’t saying if the testing was done by government or the company or who knows else. Or saying where the seed originated.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds Ltd. are warning the public not to consume the Mumm’s brand Sprouting Seeds described below because the product may be contaminated withSalmonella.

The affected product, Mumm’s brand Sprouting Seeds – Sunflower, are sold in 75g packages bearing UPC 7 73295 07582 3 and lot # SF2020.

This product is known to have been distributed in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario and may have been distributed nationally.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of this product.

The importer, Mumm’s Sprouting Seeds Ltd., Parkside, SK, is voluntarily recalling the affected product from the marketplace. The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.

Big or small, if you sell food, know what you’re selling, even organic

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Nancy Shute of NPR describes the Jones’ Mock Salt recall as a collision of two distressing trends: contamination of herbs and spices, and safety issues with organic products.

It’s made by June Jones, a hairdresser in Tacoma, Wash., who invented the seasoning a few years ago, after one of customers complained that the salt-free seasonings in the supermarket tasted terrible. Her little start-up has been a success.

But one of the ingredients in Jones’s secret recipe is organic celery seed. And that’s the source of the trouble.

Over the past few months Safeway and other big retailers have recalled organic celery seed because a batch of the seeds positive for salmonella, which can cause fatal infections. No illnesses have been reported, but the suspect seeds were distributed from last May through December.

Recalls and outbreaks caused by contaminated herbs and spices are not uncommon. Hundreds of people in 44 states fell ill with salmonella in 2009 and 2010 after eating Italian-style sausage. The culprit was red and black pepper used to season the meat.

We called up June Jones to find out what went wrong. "My supplier actually sent to me a recall letter," she said. "I pulled everything off the shelves in December, and recalled online orders. It’s very hard."

Her business will survive, she says, but she has taken a big hit financially. And she’s worried because most of her customers use salt substitute because they have health problems.

"It was very disturbing to me. I supply to a heart transplant patient in Minnesota," Jones says. "I take every precaution myself as a manufacturer to make sure my product is totally safe, and I expect other people do to that, too."

Because spices can be contaminated with bacteria and insects, big retailers routinely irradiate spices to kill pathogens.

We asked Jones if the celery seed she bought was irradiated. "Irradiated? I didn’t ask about that. I made my product from products that are supposed to be safe."

So we called up her supplier, Starwest Botanicals of Rancho Cordova, Calif. Lisa O’Keeley, the customer service supervisor, told us that the firm had found out about the contamination after a manufacturer using their seeds tested a batch and found salmonella.

"Typically all of our products get run through a full gamut of testing by our quality assurance department," O’Keeley told The Salt. "When that product was approved, there was no evidence of salmonella at the time."

The seeds in question came from Egypt, which also happens to be the source of the tainted fenugreek sprouts that were linked to the E. coli outbreak in Germany last year.

O’Keeley says her Egyptian seeds were given an organic certification by an outside inspector. "We have very strict guidelines on what we can call certified organic. "

Were the seeds irradiated? "We won’t purvey irradiated herbs," Keeley said. "Even if it’s not organic we don’t."

But organic certification doesn’t measure food safety; it’s only about how a food was grown. Recalls of organic tomatoes, lettuce, and other produce for contamination with salmonella and other deadly pathogens are, alas, common.
Organic foods have even spread botulism — like the Italian stuffed olives we covered last year.

"Consumers think organic is safer," says Doug Powell, a professor of food safety at Kansas State University. "But it doesn’t. It’s just a word. It really doesn’t mean much aside from how it was grown."

He should know; he researches outbreaks, and covers them on barfblog, a go-to source on all things icky in food safety.

He doesn’t have much sympathy for June Jones’s situation, particularly since there’s been an explosion of small food producers like her in recent years.

"If you’re going to sell to the public, you’d better know what you’re selling. Whether she thinks she’s part of the industry or just a small little producer, it doesn’t matter. You make people barf, they’re doing to come after you."

’Good business to put the safest products on the market;’ organic association adopts language of big ag

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Killing customers is bad for business.

Especially the valued repeat customer.

It’s also bad for business to make customers barf.

But, companies do it all the time, so there is a need for regulation, a legal system, and public oversight to at least embarrass so-called leaders into providing safe food.

It’s a little weird when an organic type, under questioning about safety, resorts to a big ag line (for those foodies who like to distinguish based on size and conspiracy theories).

Christine Bushway of the Organic Trade Association told the Associated Press one of the best checks on food safety is the devastating effect a recall or foodborne illness outbreak can have on a company’s bottom line.

“It’s just good business to make sure you are putting the safest products on the market,” she says.

The comments were in a story about the perceived safety of organic foods in light of repeated recalls and outbreaks –like the salmonella that sickened six in Minn. and was linked to organic eggs.

While sales for food produced on smaller operations have exploded, partially fueled by a consumer backlash to food produced by larger companies, a new set of food safety challenges has emerged. And small farm operations have been exempted from food safety laws as conservatives, farmers and food-lovers have worried about too much government intervention and regulators have struggled with tight budgets.

Bushway of the Organic Trade Association did get it right when she said food safety comes down to proper operation of a farm or food company, not its scale.

“How is the farm managed? How much effort is put into food safety? If you don’t have really good management, it doesn’t matter.”

But she misses out on an opportunity to once again stress organic is a production system with almost nothing to do with microbial food safety — the stuff that makes people barf.

At least 6 sick; salmonella linked to organic eggs
 in Minnesota

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The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) and the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) are investigating illnesses in at least six people in Minnesota that are connected with a recall of organic shell eggs due to contamination with Salmonella Enteritidis. The contaminated eggs were traced back by the MDA to Larry Schultz Organic Farm of Owatonna, where environmental testing confirmed the presence of Salmonella Enteritidis. Larry Schultz Organic Farm is cooperating with the MDA investigation and has issued a voluntary recall of the products.

Routine reportable disease monitoring by state health officials identified six cases of Salmonella Enteritidis infection with the same DNA fingerprint. The individuals became ill between August 12 and September 24. The illnesses occurred in both children and adults, and all are residents of the seven-county metropolitan area. Three of the cases were hospitalized but have since recovered. Five of the six cases have reported eating eggs from the Larry Schultz Organic Farm purchased at grocery stores or co-ops.

Eggs affected by this recall were distributed to restaurants, grocery stores, food wholesalers and foodservice companies in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Eggs from Larry Schultz Organic Farm are packaged under the following brand names: Lunds & Byerlys Organic, Kowalski’s Organic, and Larry Schultz Organic Farm. Eggs are packed in bulk and varying sizes of cartons (6-egg cartons, dozen egg cartons, 18-egg cartons). Full product descriptions and a list of grocery stores where these products were sold can be found at www.mda.state.mn.us. Cartons bearing Plant Number 0630 or a “Sell by” date are not included in this recall.

Claiming organic when it’s not (in Canada) and getting caught is ‘like getting caught for driving so fast you lose your licence, but aren’t fined’

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Auditors, certifiers, validators, grease monkeys, soil farmers, they’re all supposed to make things better.

But claims are nothing more than claims in the absence of data.

And anyone who has to say, “trust me,” is immediately untrustworthy.

So when Laura Telford, executive director of the Canadian Organic Growers, told Canadian news types a couple of weeks ago, “I’m not certain the world needs to know the exact reason why this company lost its certification. I personally feel that its enough to know that CFIA is doing its job … and when a company is not following the rules, there will be consequences,” howls of cynical guffawing ensued among those familiar with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

A few weeks ago, Lynne Moore reported in the Montreal Gazette that on June 30, 2009, the Organic Products Regulations came into effect under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The regulations provided for a transition period, a two-year span that would allow everyone to align their operations to the new reality and take care of practical matters such as using up existing packaging.

In a July 27, 2011, notice, the Canada Organic Office said Jirah Milling and Sales Inc., of Ormstown, Que., was no longer authorized to market organic products or use the Canada Organic logo (the logo that would now be recognized by the U.S. and the EU).

The notice of suspension of organic certification was sent to industry and certification bodies, but the document was not publicly disseminated by the federal body on a website or via a media release.

The Montreal Gazette found the government’s suspension notice about one of Eastern Canada’s most significant international organic dealers on the "newsroom" page of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website. It wasn’t deemed newsworthy in Canada, but it was in the U.S.

Michel Saumur, the office’s national manager and program spokesman, would not provide information about the scope of Jirah’s corporate activities, wouldn’t discuss complaints received about the company, wouldn’t say why its certification was suspended – and subsequently cancelled – and would not even disclose which certifying body had accredited Jirah.

Email inquiries to CFIA’s media office finally generated a response on Friday afternoon. The Organic Products Regulations "do not have provisions for fines and additional penalties at this time."

So it’s something like getting caught for driving so fast you lose your licence, but aren’t fined.

 

Spanish cucumbers in German E. coli O104 outbreak traced to organic producers; over 600 sick, 214 with HUS, 4 dead

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Three of four cucumber samples that tested positive for E. coli O104 in Germany were grown on two organic farms in Spain.

The news comes as the number of victims suffering from hemolytic uremic syndrome reached 214 out of approximately 600 ill, and at least four dead.

Kai Kupferschmidt writes in Science Insider today that authorities in Hamburg announced they had isolated the bacterium that is likely causing the outbreak, E. coli O104:H4 , from four cucumbers. Three of the samples came from a big market in Hamburg that sells to greengrocer’s shops as well as restaurants and caterers. Those cucumbers came from two organic producers in Spain. Scientists had speculated in the last few days that manure from infected animals used on an organic farm might have spread the bacteria to vegetables. A fourth sample came from a restaurant, and it was not immediately clear where that cucumber had been grown. After the announcement, stores started taking Spanish cucumbers off the shelves.

Consumers had already been hesitant about vegetables since scientists at RKI and the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment announced the results of a first case-control-study on Wednesday evening: Women who had become infected with EHEC were a lot more likely to have eaten raw tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce in the days before falling ill than women who had not fallen ill.

The scientists used a detailed questionnaire to ask 25 female EHEC patients and 96 women living in the same areas about what they had eaten in the days before the outbreak. Only women were included in the study because they have fallen ill more often than men in the outbreak. "It also strengthened the results of the study, because it meant that we could ignore all sex-specific differences in eating habits," says Gérard Krause, head of the department for infectious diseases epidemiology at RKI.

A statistical analysis revealed that 92 % of the women who had become infected had previously eaten tomatoes. Only about 60% of healthy women had done so. "For something that people eat so frequently, this is a big difference," says RKI expert Klaus Stark. The results for cucumbers and lettuce were similar but slightly smaller. All three results were statistically significant. The experts advised Germans, particularly in the north, not to eat any raw tomatoes, cucumbers, or lettuce until further notice.

That advice remains in place. "It is certainly a possibility that more than one of these foods is responsible," says Reinhard Burger, president of RKI. Scientists also want to be sure that the results from Hamburg are confirmed in another lab.

Kurt-Henning Klamoth, president of the German Farmers Federation (DBB) accused the media of scaremongering and condemned speculation that the illness has been spread through organic fertilizers.

Spain is Germany’s second biggest supplier of cucumbers within the European Union, sending 179,500 tonnes of the vegetable to Germany in 2009, according to the Federal Office for Agriculture.
 

Specialty meat not safer

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The number one health concern with meat is making sure it’s cooked enough to kill dangerous bacteria, which is something both conventionally and organically produced meats have.

So says Dr. Dana Hanson, a meat specialist in North Carolina State University’s Food Science Department in a piece for WRAL (see below).

“The end result is a healthy food product in either scenario. To say that one is better or more healthy than the other is, quite frankly, a stretch.”

There are also debates about animal treatment, environmental concerns and how antibiotics may impact bacteria strains. But those debates are separate from the nutrition and safety of the meat we ultimately eat.

Those comments were markedly different than those from producers of specialty meats

Ritchie Roberts of Double R Cattle Services Farm near Hillsborough said,

“I know that my beef is all grass-fed and handled correctly and is super good and nutritious for you ’cause I know what goes into it. and I have control of that. It boils down to that sense of being able to support maybe a local industry and that’s really where the benefits of organic come in.”

Draft owner Dean Ogan says, “The most important thing for us is to know where it came from, know who produced it, know the process.”

All worthy objectives — that have nothing to do with safety.
 

Lots of money to be made in organic crap; organic fertilizer maker accused of using synthetic chemicals

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To organic farmers, Kenneth Noel Nelson Jr. was the man with the golden manure: It was rich with Mother Nature’s finest waste, robust for the soil and cheap in price.

But to federal prosecutors in California, Nelson’s organic fertilizer empire had developed a stench.

On Thursday a federal grand jury indicted Nelson on 28 counts of mail fraud in connection with an alleged years-long scheme to dupe farmers and agriculture product distributors. The indictment accused Nelson, 57, of selling premium-priced liquid fertilizer touted as made from all-natural products such as fish meal and bird guano that instead was spiked with far cheaper synthetic chemicals.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the scheme, according to the federal indictment, enabled Nelson to become the largest purveyor of organic fertilizer to farmers in the western half of the U.S. and pull in at least $9 million in sales from 2003 to 2009.

This is the second indictment of an organic fertilizer producer in California in the last five months. It also has fueled fears among some farmers about possible contamination of their pristine fields and has raised questions about whether consumers bought produce that was billed as organic but may not have met federal organic requirements.

The indictment is part of a growing effort by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of the Inspector General to crack down on fraud and corruption in the organic industry — a segment of the food sector that has grown to more than $24 billion in the U.S. and has emerged as a lucrative business in the Golden State.

The agency has seven open investigations involving the federal National Organic Program, officials said.