Tag Archives: Sprouts

Does chia carry the same microbial risks as sprouted seeds/beans?

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As a child of the 80s my after school TV viewing was peppered with G.I. Joe, Voltron and Three’s Company reruns. And commercials for Chia Pets and other chia items. Even with the advertisement blasts I didn’t get the allure. A couple of weeks ago, friend of barfblog and Nebraska-based environmental health officer extraordinaire Troy Huffman emailed Doug and I about the newest health food craze (as seen on Dr. Oz) – eating Chia seeds.

According to wikipedia, chia (Salvia hispanica) is related to mint and is eaten in parts of central america as a food source (either ground or whole).

Today, U.K.’s FSA published a request for comment on an application by The Chia Company, an Australian firm that would like approval to market the seeds in baked goods, breakfast cereals and other mixed seed/nut products.

Chia (also known as Salvia hispanica) is a summer annual herbaceous plant belonging to the mint family. Chia is grown commercially in several Latin American countries and Australia, but the chia seed has not been consumed to a significant degree in the European Union and is therefore considered to be a novel food.

A novel food is a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union before 15 May 1997.

Before any new food product can be introduced on the European market, it must be assessed rigorously for safety. In the UK, the assessment of novel foods is carried out by the ACNFP, an independent committee of scientists appointed by the FSA.

The ACNFP has considered this application and has formulated a positive draft opinion. Any comments on this draft opinion should be emailed to acnfp@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk by Friday 9 March 2012. The comments will be considered by the committee when it concludes its assessment of this novel food ingredient.

Troy’s question to Doug and I was about micro risks – do chia sprouts (and maybe seeds) carry similar contamination risks to clover, alfalfa and mung bean sprouts? After a quick google scholar tour I couldn’t find much on pathogen evaluation (surveillance, survivability, growth)  of chia at all. Or whether the sprout (where the environment might promote pathogen growth) or the seed (a low moisture food like pepper and seasonings) could be an issue.
 

14 now confirmed ill from E. coli O26 in Jimmy John’s sprouts

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A total of 14 people have been infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O26 from 6 states in the fifth outbreak involving sprouts served on Jimmy John’s sandwiches in the past four years

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control report the number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Iowa (5), Missouri (3), Kansas (2), Michigan (2), Arkansas (1), and Wisconsin (1).

Two ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

Preliminary results of the epidemiologic and traceback investigations indicate eating raw clover sprouts at Jimmy John’s restaurants is the likely cause of this outbreak. Preliminary traceback information has identified a common lot of clover seeds used to grow clover sprouts served at Jimmy John’s restaurant locations where ill persons ate. FDA and states conducted a traceback that identified two separate sprouting facilities; both used the same lot of seed to grow clover sprouts served at these Jimmy John’s restaurant locations. On February 10, 2012, the seed supplier initiated notification of sprouting facilities that received this lot of clover seed to stop using it. Investigations are ongoing to identify other locations that may have sold clover sprouts grown from this seed lot.

Based on previous outbreaks associated with sprouts, investigation findings have demonstrated that sprout seeds might become contaminated in several ways. They could be grown with contaminated water or improperly composted manure fertilizer. They could be contaminated with feces from domestic or wild animals, or with runoff from animal production facilities, or by improperly cleaned growing or processing equipment. Seeds also might become contaminated during harvesting, distribution, or storage. Many clover seeds are produced for agricultural use, so they might not be processed, handled, and stored as human food would. Conditions suitable for sprouting the seed also permit bacteria that might be present on seeds to grow and multiply rapidly.

Earlier this week, William Keene, senior epidemiologist at Oregon Public Health Services, told The Packer that problems with sprouts originate with how they’re produced.

“It’s a generic problem, not a this-guy-was-doing-something-wrong problem. The conditions for generating sprouts commercially are almost like designing a process to grow bacteria. It’s wet, it’s not too cold. The sprouts grow luxuriantly and so do the bacteria.”

Trevor Suslow, an extension research specialist at the University of California-Davis, said it’s critical for regulators, industry representatives and academics drafting the FDA rule on sprouts to address seeds.

“I am not sure it will include seed production. Based on an outline, they were starting at the seed distributor, which is not adequate to protect the public. I hope they’ll put this back in….It appears to be very difficult to keep seed that has some low level of contamination from being introduced into the sprout production stream.”

Magic man defends sprouts, another chain pulls the wonder food

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Beginning in Dec. 2010, people started getting sick from eating raw sprouts on Jimmy John’s sandwiches, primarily in Indiana. After some 140 confirmed cases, the sprouts were linked to Tiny Greens Organic Farms, a producer based in Urbana, Illinois.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a 6-page inspection report of Tiny Greens in Feb. 2011, and found the company grew sprouts in “soil from the organic material decomposed outside” without using any monitored “kill step” on it.

Other findings included:

• An “amphibian/reptile” was kept in the reception room of the firm, which adjoined the production area.?* The firm couldn’t show that its antimicrobial treatment for seeds, which was not specifically described in the report, was equivalent to the recommended treatment with a bleach solution.

• Employees stored their lunches, including such items as raw bacon, in the same cooler where finished sprouts were stored.?* Organic matter was seen on a table where sprouts were packaged, and a “biofilm-like buildup” was seen on sprouting trays after they were cleaned.?* What looked like mold was seen on walls and ceiling in a mung-bean sprouting room.?*

• Condensation dripped from the ceiling in production areas throughout the inspection period, which lasted close to a month.?* An outside lab that the firm used to test its water and sprouts used a method that was not validated for detecting Salmonella in those items.?

• FDA found a Salmonella isolate matching the outbreak strain, known as I 4,[5],12:i:-, in a sample of runoff water from the company.

In the midst of the German-centered E. coli O104-in-sprouts outbreak in May 2011, Tiny Greens owner Bill Bagby, said the nutritional benefits outweigh the risk.

“Sprouts are kind of a magical thing.”

“That’s why I would advise people to only buy sprouts from someone who has a (foodsafety) program in place” that includes outside auditors, Bagby said. “We did not have (independent auditors) for about one year and that was the time the problems happened. The FDA determined that unsanitary conditions could have been a potential source of cross-contamination and so we have made a lot of changes since then.”

Independent auditors? Like the ones who said everything was cool, everything was OK, at Peanut Corporation of America (7 dead, 700 sick) and DeCoster eggs (2,000 sick)?

Auditors aren’t going to do much for sprout safety. But the optimism of the Magic Man is shared by the International Sprout Growers Association, which launched a campaign earlier this year to “make sprouts part of your healthy eating in 2012” and promoted the idea of sprouts as a “wonder food.”

Then another Jimmy John’s outbreak – E. coli O26 linked to raw sprouts in sandwiches favored by college kids – and the same actors surface on the social stage.

Bagby said this week, “We are not involved in any way, nor are we associated in any way with this current outbreak.”

The CDC website said the clover spouts used at the affected restaurants all came from two sprouting facilities using the same lot of clover seeds provided by International Specialty Supply, also known as ISS, in Cookeville, Tenn.

Bagby said, “I don’t buy from that company because it doesn’t have a sufficient decontamination procedure for the seeds.”

Bagby said Tiny Greens gets all its seeds from the Caudill Seed Co. in Louisville, Ky., because it uses a system to decontaminate the sprouting seeds.

“They use a process involving heat and a vacuum,” Bagby said.

Bagby said he was notified that Jimmy John’s has removed sprouts from its menu following this week’s finding by the CDC.

“It is ironic because sprouts have a high vitamin content, are rich in enzymes and phyto nutrients and strengthen one’s immune system.”

Not so much ironic as a painfully delayed recognition by Jimmy John’s that after 5 outbreaks related to sprouts on their sandwiches since 2008, maybe something should be done. A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Jimmy John’s spokeswoman Mary Trader said on Thursday that the company is not releasing a statement at this time.

Others, however, aren’t waiting.

Erbert and Gerbert’s Sandwich Shops, based in Eau Claire, Wis., has taken alfalfa sprouts off its menus at all outlets. The company has 53 locations.

“The decision to pull the sprouts from our menu system-wide is being made to protect the health of our guests,” Eric Wolfe, chief executive officer at E&G Franchise Systems, Inc., said in the release. “We value the well-being of our customers and felt removing all sprouts from our menu and sandwich line was the best way to eliminate the risk.”

WalMart stopped selling sprouts in North America in Oct. 2010.

NPR’s Nancy Shute chatted with Bob Sanderson, president of the International Sprout Growers Association, who talked about a number of possible sanitary treatments while concluding, “I’m hoping that the new rules [that are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act] will say, here’s what you have to do to be acceptable. That would free up the industry to come up with solutions.”

With repeated outbreaks, acceptable is a long way off.

Carnage of the sprouts: Jimmy John’s and lessons from Germany

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Those Jimmy John’s clover sprouts that have sickened at least 12 people in the Midwest with E. coli O26 may have been grown on a farm in Kansas.

I can’t wait to find out who the third-party auditor was.

Missouri’s News-Leader reports the restaurants in Springfield had obtained the sprouts from a farm in Kansas, but neither the restaurants or the farm appeared to be the source of the contamination.

But the restaurant chose to sell raw sprouts.

John Hershberger, the owner of Sweetwater Farms in Inman, Kansas, said federal investigators have not conclusively linked the seeds to the outbreak. He said an investigator from the U.S. Department of Food and Drug Administration was at his farm last week but didn’t find any contamination at the farm.

“They don’t know that for a fact,” Hershberger said of a possible link to the seeds.

Hershberger said he had voluntarily withdrawn clover sprouts from the market.

A paper in Arkansas, home to one of the illnesses, said, “In most sprout outbreaks the restaurant is not to blame for the contamination itself. Contamination usually happens when the seeds are grown or harvested and is often impossible to wash off.”

It’s true sprouts are often contaminated at the seed level but absolute nonsense that whoever serves those raw sprouts on sandwiches isn’t responsible, especially when raw sprouts have been the source of four previous outbreaks since 2008 at the same sandwich chain – Jimmy John’s.

Can food service learn anything from past sprout outbreaks – and there have been a lot, see http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Eurosurveillance, reported yesterday that a bunch of experts who gathered in Nov. 2011 concluded the outbreak showed the landscape of foodborne infections is in flux, that multi-national outbreaks are a reality and that they can occur everywhere, irrespective of food safety standards.

Nothing was said about whether people should eat raw sprouts or even if raw sprouts were a high-risk food.

Sprouts sicken 12 with E. coli O26; clover sprouts on Jimmy John’s subs suspected

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Beginning in Nov. 2010, raw sprouts served on Jimmy John’s, sandwiches sickened 140 people, primarily in Indiana, with salmonella.

In January, 2011, Jimmy John’s owner Jimmy John Liautaud said his restaurants would replace alfalfa sprouts, effective immediately, with allegedly easier-to-clean clover sprouts.

This was one week after a separate outbreak of salmonella sickened eight people in Washington and Oregon in Jan. 2011 who had eaten at a Jimmy John’s that used clover sprouts. That’s a week after the salmonella-in-clover sprouts was publicly reported, yet the head of a large food franchise like Jimmy John’s was absolutely clueless about microbial risks associated with sprouts.

A year later, it’s happened again.

Raw clover sprouts served on Jimmy John’s sandwiches have sickened at least 12 people with E. coli O26; at least two people were sickened in my home state of Kansas, where I tell anyone who will listen why they might want to reconsider sprouts on sandwiches at Jimmy John’s, which are often catered in for meetings.

I won’t touch them.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported today that preliminary results of the epidemiologic and traceback investigations indicate eating raw clover sprouts at Jimmy John’s restaurants is the likely cause of this outbreak.

The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Iowa (5), Missouri (3), Kansas (2), Arkansas (1), and Wisconsin (1).

Two ill persons have been hospitalized, and no deaths have been reported.

FDA’s traceback investigation is ongoing. Traceback information on sprouts has identified a common lot of clover seeds used to grow clover sprouts served at Jimmy John’s restaurant locations where ill persons ate.

The type of bacteria responsible for this outbreak are referred to as shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC). STEC bacteria are grouped by serogroups (e.g., O157 or O26). The STEC serogroup found most commonly in U.S. patients is E. coli O157. Other E. coli serogroups in the STEC group, including O26, are sometimes called "non-O157 STECs." Some types of STEC frequently cause severe disease, including bloody diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS). Others, such as common strains of STEC O26, typically cause milder illness. Currently, there are limited public health surveillance data on the occurrence of non-O157 STECs, including STEC O26; therefore, STEC O26 infections may go undiagnosed or unreported. Because non-O157 STEC infections are more difficult to identify than STEC O157, many clinical laboratories do not test for them. The STEC O26 PFGE pattern in this outbreak has rarely been seen before in PulseNet.
Initial Case Count

Among persons for whom information is available, illness onset dates range from December 25, 2011 to January 15, 2012. Ill persons range in age from 9 years to 49 years old, with a median age of 25 years old. One hundred percent of ill persons are female. Among the 12 ill persons, 2 (17%) were hospitalized. None have developed HUS, and no deaths have been reported.

Epidemiologic and traceback investigations conducted by officials in local, state, and federal public health, agriculture, and regulatory agencies have linked this outbreak to eating raw clover sprouts. Among the 11 ill persons with information available, 10 (91%) reported eating at a Jimmy John’s sandwich restaurant in the 7 days preceding illness. Ill persons reported eating at 9 different locations of Jimmy John’s restaurants in 4 states in the week before becoming ill. One location was identified where more than one ill person reported eating in the week before becoming ill. Among the 10 ill persons who reported eating at a Jimmy John’s restaurant location, 8 (80%) reported eating a sandwich containing sprouts, and 9 (90%) reported eating a sandwich containing lettuce. Currently, no other common grocery stores or restaurants are associated with illnesses.

Preliminary traceback information has identified a common lot of clover seeds used to grow clover sprouts served at Jimmy John’s restaurant locations where ill persons ate. FDA and states conducted a traceback that identified two separate sprouting facilities; both used the same lot of seed to grow clover sprouts served at these Jimmy John’s restaurant locations. Preliminary distribution information indicates that sprouts grown from this seed lot were sold at a number of restaurant and grocery store locations in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Wisconsin, and were likely distributed beyond these states. On February 10, 2012, the seed supplier initiated notification of sprouting facilities that received this lot of clover seed to stop using it. Investigations are ongoing to identify other locations that may have sold clover sprouts grown from this seed lot.

Based on previous outbreaks associated with sprouts, investigation findings have demonstrated that sprout seeds might become contaminated in several ways. They could be grown with contaminated water or improperly composted manure fertilizer. They could be contaminated with feces from domestic or wild animals, or with runoff from animal production facilities, or by improperly cleaned growing or processing equipment. Seeds also might become contaminated during harvesting, distribution, or storage. Many clover seeds are produced for agricultural use, so they might not be processed, handled, and stored as human food would. Conditions suitable for sprouting the seed also permit bacteria that might be present on seeds to grow and multiply rapidly.

In 1999, FDA released guidance to help seed producers and sprout growers enhance the safety of their products. Specific measures recommended in the guidelines include a seed disinfection step and microbiologic tests of water that has been used to grow each lot of sprouts. The microbiologic tests currently recommended under this guidance would not identify the presence of STEC O26.

Walmart stopped selling raw sprouts over a year ago for food safety reasons; why haven’t others?

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If Walmart can figure out that raw sprouts are too risky to sell in their stores, why are fancy food service providers, like Emirates airlines still serving sprouts?

Rebekah Denn of the Seattle Times reports Walmart U.S. quietly stopped selling raw sprouts in October of 2010.

"This decision was made because of our commitment to our customers’ safety as well as our knowing of the inherent microbial risks associated with sprouts," said spokeswoman Dianna Gee. "Over the past year, we have been working with sprout growers within the industry to research enhanced food safety controls and microbial intervention strategies that would result in safer sprouts, before re-introducing them for sale in our stores and clubs."

Don’t look to Macpherson’s Produce on Beacon Hill either, which pulled the health food after an E. coli outbreak linked to sprouts sickened thousands and killed 53 people in Europe and a salmonella outbreak linked to Northwest sprouts sickened 21 people last summer, including some in our state. The crunchy garnish is slipping off the menu at other outlets nationwide, says NPR.

I checked in with one of my favorite food-safety sources, Professor Doug Powell of Kansas State University, who brings blunt talk and scientific rigor to outbreaks and scares. He mentioned to me that sprouts were no longer available at Walmart, the first I’d heard of that move — and noted that plenty of others have taken that route. They’re one of the few foods he won’t touch himself.

"They are a hazardous food, and a lot of food service companies stopped serving them years ago…" Powell said.

"The industry is working on it, and my hat goes off to them, but…any industry is only as good as its worst producer."

So. How to decide if you want to eat them yourself, and how to do it safely?

As Dr. Raj Mody, an epidemiologist for the Centers for Disease Control, puts it in an online article, some people think of sprouts as the ultimate healthy food. But Mody also calls them "a perfect vehicle for pathogens," and suggests cooking them if you’re going to eat them at all.

The big problem. The seeds themselves can be contaminated, and they’re sprouted in a wet, warm medium that’s perfect for spreading contamination no matter where it originated.

Sometimes when we write about food safety, producers of the affected products can come off as extremely defensive, sure that their food cannot be at fault. But talking with Bob Sanderson, president of the International Sprout Growers Association, I found a guy who is both proud of what he grows and very concerned about finding ways to make sure it’s safe industry-wide. The association started as a way to promote the nutritional value of sprouts, he said, but food safety has become more of its focus.

"(The sprout) has never been a big item in the produce world, and it’s always had a very dedicated customer base. But there have been a number of outbreaks, and they’ve caused a lot of concern. The best way to try to rebuld confidence in the product is to standardize the best practices for minimizing that kind of situation," he said.

The association is working with the FDA and, in particular, with the Institute for Food Safety and Health, figuring out the best practices to follow. A current project is designing an audit for sprout production, looking at all the most critical areas. Some of the bigger companies are doing their own research as well, he noted.

For sprouts to return to Walmart, for instance, Sanderson said the rigorous list of requirements growers are working on includes items such as having the growers show documentation on their seed sourcing and sanitizing, showing that they have tested their spent irrigation water, undergoing this "extremely detailed third-party audit…it covers absolutely everything", and being able to trace any problem sources.

"A lot of these things the industry for the most part is already doing," he said. There are not a lot of seed suppliers, but "the main ones are certainly doing a lot of testing and they won’t accept a seed lot if anything comes up in their tests," he said. That said, it’s not a complete guarantee, and they would like to see better sanitizing treatments for seeds than the chlorine-based one the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended years back. Testing the spent irrigation water is is something that he thinks almost all the commercial growers are doing. "It’s been designed so you’ll get the results back before the product goes out the door," he said.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Fancy food isn’t safe food: Emirates edition

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I’ve got some work in Dubai and inexplicably scored access to the Emirates fancy pants lounge at the Brisbane airport. So I wore shorts. Fabulous beef, fruit, and I’m drinking Veuve Cliquot champagne (which I usually pronounce Verve Cluque) like Dan Aykroyd in the Blues Brothers.

But proving once again that even the fanciest places may not know much about food safety, this delightfully refreshing and crisp prawn salad was tainted with sprouts Raw pea sprouts. Yuck. Besides direct ingestion there is cross-contamination.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

At least they didn’t switch to clover; sprouts are out at Jason’s Deli

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Sprouts served on Jimmy John’s sandwiches supplied by a farm called Tiny Greens sickened 140 people with Salmonella, primarily in Indiana in late 2010. In Jan. 2011, Jimmy John’s owner Jimmy John Liautaud said his restaurants would replace alfalfa sprouts, effective immediately, with allegedly easier-to-clean clover sprouts. This was one week after a separate outbreak of Salmonella sickened eight people in the U.S. Northwest who had eaten at a Jimmy John’s that used clover sprouts.

Those frequent recalls and concerns about the safety of sprouts have prompted Jason’s Deli to drop them from its menu nationwide for the remainder of 2012.

“We’ve lost confidence in sprouts,” Daniel Helfman, Jason’s Deli director of public relations, told Mike Hornick of The Packer. “We’re all about food safety and the health and wellness of our customers. Bottom line, when you look at what’s occurred with sprouts just in the last year or so, the recalls and warnings, it’s enough that we feel we have to walk away for all of 2012 and maybe 2013. The sprout industry is trying to restore confidence, but that’s just going to take time. I can’t imagine other restaurants aren’t looking at this.”

Representatives of the International Sprout Growers Association were not immediately available for comment.

The change, already in place in some markets, will take full effect sometime in April. Beaumont, Texas-based Jason’s Deli has more than 230 restaurants in 28 states.

But be careful: Jason’s Deli is replacing sprouts with organic spinach and field greens.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Australian sprouts recalled again

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There’s been another recall of mung bean sprouts grown in Victoria (that’s where Melbourne is).

For the second time this month, mung beans and mung bean and alfalfa sprout mixes have been recalled due to E. coli contamination. The salad mixes were grown in two separate locations, one in Flowerdale north of Melbourne, and the other in Gippsland in Victoria’s south east.

ABC News reports that “last year 46 people in Germany died from eating E. coli contaminated sprouts, however this is a different strain of the bacteria and considered unlikely to make people sick.”

Fifty-three people died in the German E. coli O104 sprout outbreak. And again, no details on what kind of E. coli, or if anyone is sick.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.

Why they’re called Living Sprouts; salmonella in sprouts leads to recall

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 Leasa Industries Co., Inc. of Miami, FL is recalling 346 cases of LEASA Living Alfalfa Sprouts with use by date 2/1/12, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella.

LEASA Living Alfalfa Sprouts with use by date 2/1/12 were distributed through FL, GA, AL, LA, and MS through retail stores and food service companies on 1/4/12, 1/5/12, 1/6/12, 1/7/12 and 1/8/12.

The affected product is in 6 oz. clear plastic containers with a UPC code of 75465-55912 and has an expiration date of 2/1/12. The UPC code is located on the side of the label at the side of the container. The expiration date of the package is located on the side of the container.

Supermarket Winn-Dixie went further, pulling all Leasa sprouts off its shelves.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

A table of sprout-related outbreaks is available at http://bites.ksu.edu/sprouts-associated-outbreaks.