Tag Archives: yuma

Ripple: Arizona scientists to examine food safety practices after E. coli outbreak

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In the spring of 2018, an E. coli O157 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in the Yuma, Arizona area resulted in 210 reported illnesses from 36 states, 96 hospitalizations, 27 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and five deaths.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched a new initiative with support from the Arizona Department of Agriculture, and in conjunction with the University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, the Wellton-Mohawk Irrigation and Drainage District (WMIDD), and members of the Yuma area leafy greens industry to better understand the ecology of human pathogens in the environment in the Yuma agricultural region. This initiative will be a multi-year study which will focus on how these pathogens survive, move and possibly contaminate produce prior to harvest. 

While the FDA, the Arizona Department of Agriculture and other state partners conducted an environmental assessment from June through August 2018 that narrowed the scope of the outbreak, the specific origin, the environmental distribution and the potential reservoirs of the outbreak strain remain unknown.

Between 2009 and 2017, FDA and partners at CDC identified 28 foodborne STEC outbreaks with known or suspected links to leafy greens. Like a lot of fresh produce, leafy greens are often eaten raw without a kill-step, such as cooking, that could eliminate pathogens that may be present.

Sounds like Yuma growers could use a Box of Rain. Or maybe more knowledge of the microbial ripple effect. May death be groovy for you, long-time Grateful Dead collaborator and lyricist Robert Hunter, who passed on Tuesday, aged 78.

Losing California or Arizona: 5 dead, 210 sick from E. coli O157 in lettuce

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Elizabeth Shogren and Susie Neilson of Reveal write that William Whitt suffered violent diarrhea for days. But once he began vomiting blood, he knew it was time to rush to the hospital. His body swelled up so much that his wife thought he looked like the Michelin Man, and on the inside, his intestines were inflamed and bleeding.

For four days last spring, doctors struggled to control the infection that was ravaging Whitt, a father of three in western Idaho. The pain was excruciating, even though he was given opioid painkillers intravenously every 10 minutes for days.

His family feared they would lose him.

“I was terrified. I wouldn’t leave the hospital because I wasn’t sure he was still going to be there when I got back,” said Whitt’s wife, Melinda.

Whitt and his family were baffled: How could a healthy 37-year-old suddenly get so sick? While he was fighting for his life, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quizzed Whitt, seeking information about what had sickened him.

Finally, the agency’s second call offered a clue: “They kept drilling me about salad,” Whitt recalled. Before he fell ill, he had eaten two salads from a pizza shop.

William Whitt and wife Melinda say it is irresponsible for the Food and Drug Administration to postpone water-testing requirements for produce growers. “People should be able to know that the food they’re buying is not going to harm them and their loved ones,” Melinda Whitt said.

The culprit turned out to be E. coli, a powerful pathogen that had contaminated romaine lettuce grown in Yuma, Arizona, and distributed nationwide. At least 210 people in 36 states were sickened. Five died and 27 suffered kidney failure. The same strain of E. coli that sickened them was detected in a Yuma canal used to irrigate some crops.

For more than a decade, it’s been clear that there’s a gaping hole in American food safety: Growers aren’t required to test their irrigation water for pathogens such as E. coli. As a result, contaminated water can end up on fruits and vegetables.

After several high-profile disease outbreaks linked to food, Congress in 2011 ordered a fix, and produce growers this year would have begun testing their water under rules crafted by the Obama administration’s Food and Drug Administration.

But six months before people were sickened by the contaminated romaine, President Donald Trump’s FDA – responding to pressure from the farm industry and Trump’s order to eliminate regulations – shelved the water-testing rules for at least four years.

Despite this deadly outbreak, the FDA has shown no sign of reconsidering its plan to postpone the rules. The agency also is considering major changes, such as allowing some produce growers to test less frequently or find alternatives to water testing to ensure the safety of their crops.

The FDA’s lack of urgency dumbfounds food safety scientists.

“Mystifying, isn’t it?” said Trevor Suslow, a food safety expert at the University of California, Davis. “If the risk factor associated with agricultural water use is that closely tied to contamination and outbreaks, there needs to be something now. … I can’t think of a reason to justify waiting four to six to eight years to get started.”

The deadly Yuma outbreak underscores that irrigation water is a prime source of foodborne illnesses. In some cases, the feces of livestock or wild animals flow into a creek. Then the tainted water seeps into wells or is sprayed onto produce, which is then harvested, processed and sold at stores and restaurants. Salad greens are particularly vulnerable because they often are eaten raw and can harbor bacteria when torn.

After an E. coli outbreak killed three people who ate spinach grown in California’s Salinas Valley in 2006, most California and Arizona growers of leafy greens signed agreements to voluntarily test their irrigation water.

Whitt’s lettuce would have been covered by those agreements. But his story illustrates the limits of a voluntary safety program and how lethal E. coli can be even when precautions are taken by farms and processors.

Farm groups contend that water testing is too expensive and should not apply to produce such as apples or onions, which are less likely to carry pathogens.

“I think the whole thing is an overblown attempt to exert government power over us,” said Bob Allen, a Washington state apple farmer.

While postponing the water-testing rules would save growers $12 million per year, it also would cost consumers $108 million per year in medical expenses, according to an FDA analysis.

“The Yuma outbreak does indeed emphasize the urgency of putting agricultural water standards in place, but it is important that they be the right standards, ones that both meet our public health mission and are feasible for growers to meet,” FDA spokeswoman Juli Putnam said in response to written questions.

In addition, the FDA did not sample water in a Yuma irrigation canal until seven weeks after the area’s lettuce was identified as the cause of last spring’s outbreak. And university scientists trying to learn from the outbreak say farmers have not shared water data with them as they try to figure out how it occurred and avoid future ones.

Beware the canal waters (I’m looking at you Holland Marsh, Ontario, that’s in Canada): Canal irrigation water likely source of E. coli O157 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce 5 dead, 218 sick

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 illnesses linked to romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region.

The FDA, along with CDC and state partners, initiated an environmental assessment in the Yuma growing region to further investigate potential sources of contamination linked to this outbreak.

Samples have been collected from environmental sources in the region, including water, soil, and cow manure. Evaluation of these samples is ongoing.

To date, CDC analysis of samples taken from canal water in the region has identified the presence of E. coli O157:H7 with the same genetic finger print as the outbreak strain. We have identified additional strains of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli in water and soil samples, but at this time, the samples from the canal water are the only matches to the outbreak strain.

Analysis of additional samples is still ongoing, and any new matches to the outbreak strain will be communicated publicly and with industry in the region.

Identification of the outbreak strain in the environment should prove valuable in our analysis of potential routes of contamination, and we are continuing our investigation in an effort to learn more about how the outbreak strain could have entered the water and ways that this water could have come into contact with and contaminated romaine lettuce in the region.

As of June 27, the CDC reports that 218 people in 36 states and Canada have become ill. These people reported becoming ill in the time period of March 13, 2018 to June 6, 2018. There have been 96 hospitalizations and five deaths.

The traceback investigation indicates that the illnesses associated with this outbreak cannot be explained by a single grower, harvester, processor, or distributor. While traceback continues, the FDA will focus on trying to identify factors that contributed to contamination of romaine across multiple supply chains.  The agency is examining all possibilities, including that contamination may have occurred at any point along the growing, harvesting, packaging, and distribution chain before reaching consumers. 

The FDA, along with CDC and state partners, initiated an environmental assessment in the Yuma growing region to further investigate potential sources of contamination linked to this outbreak. To date, CDC analysis of samples taken from canal water in the region has identified the presence of E. coli O157:H7 with the same genetic finger print as the outbreak strain. We have identified additional strains of E. coli in water and soil samples, but at this time, the samples from the canal water are the only matches to the outbreak strain.

The FDA is continuing to investigate this outbreak and will share more information as it becomes available.

“More work needs to be done to determine just how and why this strain of E. coli O157:H7 could have gotten into this body of water and how that led to contamination of romaine lettuce from multiple farms,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in a statement.

5 dead, 197 sick from E. coli O157 linked to romaine lettuce

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reports there are now five people dead and 197 sick from E. coli O157:H7 linked to romaine lettuce.

  • 197 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 35 states.
  • 89 people (48%) have been hospitalized, including 26 people who have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome.
  • 5 deaths have been reported from Arkansas (1), California (1), Minnesota (2), and New York (1).
  • Illnesses started on dates ranging from March 13, 2018 to May 12, 2018.
  • Ill people range in age from 1 to 88 years, with a median age of 29.
  • Sixty-eight percent of ill people are female.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has identified people in several Canadian provinces infected with the same DNA fingerprint of E. coli O157:H7.

It takes two to three weeks between when a person becomes ill with E. coli and when the illness is reported to CDC. Most of the people who recently became ill ate romaine lettuce when lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region was likely still available in stores, restaurants, or in peoples’ homes. Some people who became sick did not report eating romaine lettuce, but had close contact with someone else who got sick from eating romaine lettuce.

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the last shipments of romaine lettuce from the Yuma growing region were harvested on April 16, 2018, and the harvest season is over. It is unlikely that any romaine lettuce from the Yuma growing region is still available in people’s homes, stores, or restaurants due to its 21-day shelf life.

The traceback investigation indicates that the illnesses associated with this outbreak cannot be explained by a single grower, harvester, processor, or distributor. While traceback continues, the FDA will focus on trying to identify factors that contributed to contamination of romaine across multiple supply chains.  The agency is examining all possibilities, including that contamination may have occurred at any point along the growing, harvesting, packaging, and distribution chain before reaching consumers. 

The FDA has identified Harrison Farms of Yuma, Arizona, as the grower and sole source of the whole-head romaine lettuce that sickened several people in an Alaskan correctional facility, but has not determined where in the supply chain the contamination occurred.

On May 31, 2018 the FDA released a blog with updated information on the traceback investigation (for additional information, visit FDA Update on Traceback Related to the E. coli O157:H7 Outbreak Linked to Romaine Lettuce).

A listing of 78 outbreaks linked to leafy greens since 1995 is posted here.

121 sick, 52 hospitalized, 14 with kidney failure and 1 death linked to Yuma romaine E. coli outbreak

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I’m not sure in what universe, the-growing-area-has-stopped-harvesting is a useful explanation for an outbreak of foodborne illness that has sickened 121 and hospitalized almost 50 per cent.

And this picture from 12 years ago is still apt.

I’ll write a much more scathing indictment of the 10-year-experiment in self-fellatio practiced by the Leafy Greens Marketing Association in my upcoming book, Food Safety Fairy Tales.

For now, let it be known that according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, E. coli O157:H7 linked to romaine lettuce has sickened 121 people in 25 states.

52 people have been hospitalized, including 14 people who have developed hemolytic uremic syndrome.

One death was reported from California.

This investigation is ongoing, and CDC will provide updates when more information is available.

84 now sick with E. coli O157:H7 linked to romaine lettuce

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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, 31 more ill people from 10 states were added to this investigation since the last update on April 18, 2018.

Three more states have reported ill people: Colorado, Georgia, and South Dakota.

The most recent illness started on April 12, 2018. Illnesses that occurred in the last two to three weeks might not yet be reported because of the time between when a person becomes ill with E. coli and when the illness is reported to CDC.

Information collected to date indicates that romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and could make people sick.

The investigation has not identified a common grower, supplier, distributor, or brand of romaine lettuce.

Do not eat or buy romaine lettuce unless you can confirm it is not from the Yuma, Arizona, growing region.

Product labels often do not identify growing regions; so, do not eat or buy romaine lettuce if you do not know where it was grown.

This advice includes whole heads and hearts of romaine, chopped romaine, and salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce. If you do not know if the lettuce in a salad mix is romaine, do not eat it.

Do not serve or sell any romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. This includes whole heads and hearts of romaine, chopped romaine, and salads and salad mixes containing romaine lettuce.

Restaurants and retailers should ask their suppliers about the source of their romaine lettuce.

CDC, public health and regulatory officials in several states, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coliO157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) infections.

Eighty-four people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 19 states.

Forty-two people have been hospitalized, including nine people who have developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.

No deaths have been reported.

A listing of 78 outbreaks linked to leafy greens since 1995 is posted here.

All the news just repeats itself: Leafy greens in public

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In October, 1996, a 16-month-old Denver girl drank Smoothie juice manufactured by Odwalla Inc. of Half Moon Bay, California. She died several weeks later; 64 others became ill in several western U.S. states and British Columbia after drinking the same juices, which contained unpasteurized apple cider — and E. coli O157:H7. Investigators believed that some of the apples used to make the cider might have been insufficiently washed after falling to the ground and coming into contact with deer feces (Powell and Leiss, 1997) not that washing would do much.

Almost 10 years later, on Sept. 14, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that an outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 had killed a 77-year-old woman and sickened 49 others (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2006). The outbreak ultimately killed four and sickened at least 200 across the U.S. This was documented-outbreak 29 linked to leafy greens, but also apparently the tipping point for growers to finally get religion about commodity-wide food safety, following the way of their farmer friends in California, 10 years later.

In the decade between these two watershed outbreaks, 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 what point did sufficient evidence exist to compel the fresh produce industry to embrace the kind of change the sector has heralded since 2007? And at what point will future evidence be deemed sufficient to initiate change within an industry?

The 1993 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 associated with undercooked hamburgers at the Jack-in-the-Box fast food chain propelled microbial food safety to the forefront of public awareness, at least in the U.S. (Powell and Leiss, 1997). In 1996, following extensive public and political discussions about microbial food safety in meat, the focus shifted to fresh fruits and vegetables, following an outbreak of Cyclospora cayetanesis ultimately linked to Guatemalan raspberries that sickened 1,465 in 21 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1997). That same year, Beuchat (1996) published a review on pathogenic microorganisms in fresh fruits and vegetables and identified numerous pathways of contamination.

By 1997, researchers at CDC were stating that pathogens could contaminate at any point along the fresh produce food chain — at the farm, processing plant, transportation vehicle, retail store or foodservice operation and the home — and that by understanding where potential problems existed, it was possible to develop strategies to reduce risks of contamination (Tauxe et al., 1997). Researchers also reported that the use of pathogen-free water for washing would minimize risk of contamination (Suslow, 1997; Beuchat, 1998).

Beuchat and Ryu (1997) reported in a review that sources of pathogenic microorganisms for produce included:

Preharvest

  • Feces
  • Soil
  • Irrigation water
  • Water used to apply fungicides, insecticides
  • Green or inadequately composted manure
  • Air (dust)
  • Wild and domestic animals (including fowl and reptiles)
  • Insects
  • Human handling

Postharvest

  • Feces
  • Human handling (workers, consumers)
  • Harvesting equipment
  • Transport containers (field to packing shed)
  • Wild and domestic animals (including fowl and reptiles)
  • Insects
  • Air (dust)
  • Wash and rinse water
  • Sorting, packing, cutting, and further processing equipment
  • Ice
  • Transport vehicles
  • Improper storage (temperature, physical environment)
  • Improper packaging (including new packaging technologies)
  • Cross-contamination (other foods in storage, preparation, and display areas)
  • Improper display temperature.

kFresh fruits and vegetables were identified as the source of several outbreaks of foodborne illness in the early 1990s, especially leafy greens (Table 1).

Date Product Pathogen Cases Setting/dish State
Apr-92 Lettuce S. enteriditis 12 Salad VT
Jan-93 Lettuce S. Heidelberg 18 Restaurant MN
Jul-93 Lettuce Norovirus 285 Restaurant IL
Aug-93 Salad E. coli O157:H7 53 Salad Bar WA
Jul-93 Salad E. coli O157:H7 10 Unknown WA
Sep-94 Salad E. coli O157:H7 26 School TX
Jul-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H48 74 Lettuce MT
Sep-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H47 30 Scout Camp ME
Sep-95 Salad E. coli O157:H7 20 Ceasar Salad ID
Oct-95 Lettuce E. coli O153:H46 11 Salad OH
May-96 Lettuce E. coli O157:H10 61 Mesclun Mix ML
Jun-96 Lettuce E. coli O153:H49 7 Mesclun Mix NY

Outbreaks of foodborne illness related to leafy greens, 1992-1996.

Dave Gombas told an International Association for Food Protection symposium on leafy green safety on Oct. 6, 2006 in Washington, D.C. that if growers did everything they were supposed to do — in the form of good agricultural practices — and it was verified, there may be fewer outbreaks. He then said government needs to spend a lot more on research.

Wow. The same person who has vacillated between the Produce Marketing Association and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the past couple of decades (all you critics who complain about folks jumping back-and-forth-and-back as part of a genetically-engineered conspiracy may want to look at the all-natural, all-good-for-ya produce sector) pronounced on grower verification in which nothing has been done.

Since we were on the same panel in Washington, in 2006, I asked Gombas, why is the industry calling for more investment in research about the alleged unknowns of microbial contamination of produce when the real issue seems to be on-farm delivery and verification? Hiding behind the unknown is easy, working on verifying what is being done is much harder.

More calls for research.

Nothing on human behavior in a fresh produce environment.

It’s just another case of saying the right things in public, but failing to acknowledge what happens on individual farms. Verification is tough. Auditing may not work, because many of these outbreaks happened on third -party audited operations. Putting growers in a classroom doesn’t work, and there’s no evidence that begging for government oversight yields a product that results in fewer sick people.

In 1999, several more outbreaks of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) were linked to leafy greens (Table 2), and the U.S. group, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, developed and published HACCP-based food safety guidelines for industry (United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association, 1999).

Date Product Pathogen Cases Setting/dish State
Feb-99 Lettuce E. coli O157:H9 65 Restaurant NE
Jun-99 Salad E. coli O111:H8 58 Texas Camp TX
Sep-99 Lettuce E. coli O157:H11 6 Iceberg WA
Oct-99 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 40 Nursing Home PA
Oct-99 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 47 Restaurant OH
Oct-99 Salad E. coli O157:H7 5 Restaurant OR

Table 2. 1999 U.S. outbreaks of STEC linked to leafy greens

By 2000, Rafferty and colleagues demonstrated that E. coli could spread on-farm in plant production cuttings from one contaminated source, magnifying an outbreak to a whole farm (Rafferty et al., 2000). A 2001 outbreak of Shigella flexneri (886 ill) in tomatoes further focused public and scientific attention onto fresh produce.

Solomon and colleagues (2002a) discovered that the transmission of E. coli O157:H7 to lettuce was possible through both spray and drip irrigation. They also found that the pathogen persisted on the plants for 20 days following application and submerging the lettuce in a solution of 200ppm chlorine did not eliminate all viable E.coli O157:H7 cells, suggesting that irrigation water of unknown microbial quality should be avoided in lettuce production (Solomon et al., 2002a). In a follow-up experiment, Solomon and colleagues (2002b) explored the transmission of E. coli O157:H7 from manure-contaminated soil and irrigation water to lettuce plants. The researchers recovered viable cells from the inner tissues of the lettuce plants and found that the cells migrated to internal locations in plant tissue and were thus protected from the action of sanitizing agents. These experiments demonstrated that E. coli O157:H7 could enter the lettuce plant through the root system and migrate throughout the edible portion of the plant (Solomon et al., 2002b). Such results were widely reported in general media.

During this time, several outbreaks of E. coli were again linked to lettuce and salad (Table 3).

Date Product Pathogen Cases Setting/dish State
Oct-00 Salad E. coli O157:H7 6 Deli IN
Nov-01 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 20 Restaurant TX
Jul-02 Lettuce E. coli O157:H8 55 Bagged, Tossed WA
Nov-02 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 13 Restaurant IL
Dec-02 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 3 Restaurant MN

Table 3: Leafy green outbreaks of STEC, 2000 — 2002.

 In 2003, according to Mexican growers, the market impact of an outbreak of hepatitis A traced to exported green onions lasted up to 4 months while prices fell 72 per cent (Calvin et al., 2004). Roma tomatoes were identified as the source of a salmonellosis outbreak that resulted in over 560 cases in both Canada and the US (CDC 2005).

During 2003-2005, several additional outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 were linked to fresh leafy greens, including one multi-state outbreak involving Dole bagged lettuce (Table 4). 

Date Product Pathogen Cases Setting/dish State
Sep-03 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 51 Restaurant CA
Nov-03 Spinach E. coli O157:H7 16 Nursing Home CA
Nov-04 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 6 Restaurant NJ
Sep-05 Lettuce E. coli O157:H7 11 Dole, bagged Multiple

Table 4: Leafy green STEC outbreaks, 2003 — 2005.

During 2005–2006, four large multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections associated with eating raw tomatoes at restaurants occurred in the U.S., resulting in 459 culture-confirmed cases of salmonellosis in 21 states. Investigations determined that the tomatoes had been supplied to restaurants either whole or precut from tomato fields in Florida, Ohio, and Virginia (CDC, 2006).

Allwood and colleagues (2004) examined 40 items of fresh produce taken from a retail setting in the U.S. that had been preprocessed (including cut, shredded, chopped or peeled) at or before the point of purchase. They found fecal contamination indicators (E. coli, F-specific coliphages, and noroviruses) were present in 48 per cent of samples.

 Researchers in Minnesota conducted a small-scale comparative study of organic versus conventionally grown produce. They found that while all samples were virtually free of pathogens, E. coli was 19 times more prevalent on produce acquired from the organic farms (Mukherjee et al., 2004). They estimated that this was due to the common use of manure aged for less than a year. Use of cattle manure was found to be of higher risk as E. coli was found 2.4 times more often on farms using it than other animal manures (Mukherjee et al., 2004).

On Sept. 14, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2006) issued a public statement warning against the consumption of bagged fresh spinach.

“Given the severity of this illness and the seriousness of the outbreak,” stated Dr. Robert Brackett, Director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), “FDA believes that a warning to consumers is needed (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2006).”

That is no different from the sometimes conflicting messages coming from FDA today about the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak on lettuce that originated in Yuma, Arizona: these public health folks are figuring it out on the go.

Sean Rossman of USA Today reports today that in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to Yuma lettuce, 70% of those who’ve gotten sick are female.

Similarly, when leafy greens were the culprit of an E. coli outbreak last year, 67% of those infected were women or girls. In 2016, females were 73% of those ill from an outbreak in alfalfa sprouts, notes the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are some suggestions:

  • The first line of defense is the farm, not the consumer.
  • All ruminants — cows, sheep, goats, deer — can carry dangerous E. coli like the O157:H7 strain that sickened people in the spinach outbreak, as well as the Taco Bell and Taco Johns outbreaks ultimately traced to lettuce.
  • Any commodity is only as good as its worst grower.

We’ve had a few peer-reviewed thoughts on these topics:

Powell, D.A. and Chapman, B. 2007. Fresh threat: what’s lurking in your salad bowl?. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 87: 1799-1801.

Implementing On-Farm Food Safety Programs in Fruit and Vegetable Cultivation, Improving the Safety of Fresh Fruit and Vegetables

Luedtke, A., Chapman, B. and Powell, D.A. 2003. Implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables. Journal of Food Protection. 66:485-489.

Powell, D.A., Bobadilla-Ruiz, M., Whitfield, A. Griffiths, M.G.. and Luedtke, A. 2002. Development, implementation and analysis of an on-farm food safety program for the production of greenhouse vegetables in Ontario, Canada. Journal of Food Protection. 65: 918- 923.

A listing of 78 outbreaks linked to leafy greens since 1995 is posted here.

35 in 11 states sick with E. coli from Romaine lettuce grown in Arizona

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It’s time to end the leafy greens cone of silence.

Top view of romaine lettuce that has been sliced on a wood cutting board.

This time it has made people unnecessarily sick.

I wouldn’t touch their product.

But how would I know?

On Sept. 14, 2006, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that an outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 had killed a 77-year-old woman and sickened 49 others. The FDA learned from the Centers for Disease Control and Wisconsin health officials that the outbreak may have been linked to the consumption of produce and identified bagged fresh spinach as a possible cause.

Eventually, four would die and at least 200 sickened.

One of the responses was to form the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) which apparently overseas most of the leafy greens production in the U.S.

They are known primarily for self-aggrandizing press releases.

And lots of rumors about how they inhibit epidemiological investigations into outbreaks of foodborne illness linked to their products (search ‘cone of silence’ on barfblog.com for plenty of examples)

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, since the last update on April 10, 2018, 18 more people from 9 states were added to this outbreak.

How many of those could have been prevented if CDC or State health types fingered chopped Romaine lettuce when rumors started circulating? Is the goal of LGMA really to forego epi and demand absolute proof before going public?

As of April 12, 2018, 35 people infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported from 11 states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from March 22, 2018 to March 31, 2018. Ill people range in age from 12 to 84 years, with a median age of 29. Sixty-nine percent of ill people are female. Twenty-two ill people have been hospitalized, including three people who developed hemolytic uremic syndrome, a type of kidney failure. No deaths have been reported.

Illnesses that occurred after March 27, 2018, might not yet be reported due to the time it takes between when a person becomes ill with E. coli and when the illness is reported. This takes an average of two to three weeks.

Epidemiologic evidence collected to date indicates that chopped romaine lettuce is the likely source of this outbreak. Twenty-six (93%) of 28 people interviewed reported consuming romaine lettuce in the week before their illness started. This percentage is significantly higher than results from a survey[787 KB] of healthy people in which 46% reported eating romaine lettuce in the week before they were interviewed. Most people reported eating a salad at a restaurant, and romaine lettuce was the only common ingredient identified among the salads eaten. The restaurants reported using bagged, chopped romaine lettuce to make salads. At this time, ill people are not reporting whole heads or hearts of romaine.

Traceback investigations are ongoing to determine the source of chopped romaine lettuce supplied to restaurant locations where ill people ate. At this time, no common grower, supplier, distributor, or brand has been identified. However, preliminary information indicates that the chopped romaine lettuce was from the Yuma, Arizona growing region.

Information collected to date indicates that chopped romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region could be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 and could make people sick.

Advice to Restaurants and Retailers:

  • Restaurants and retailers should not serve or sell any chopped romaine lettuce, including salads and salad mixes containing chopped romaine lettuce, from the Yuma, Arizona growing region.
  • Restaurants and retailers should ask their suppliers about the source of their chopped romaine lettuce.

That’s right, consumers, it’s up to you.

It should be up to the restaurant or retailer, who markets food safety at point-of-purchase.

And LGMA, which covers Yuma growing, should be forthcoming about risks, rather than blowing themselves in nonsensical tweets.

You Learn: illnesses and outbreaks have to lead to change

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Outbreaks happen all the time. The majority are avoidable and can be linked to a few factors or bad decisions. While I’m a self-described outbreak junkie, it’s not the gore of vomit and barf associated with tragic incidents that I’m interested in. While the stories are important, I’m not into embellishment to scare folks into behavior change. The philosophy I subscribe to is to present folks who make decisions, from the teenage produce stock boy to the CEO of a food company, with the risks and consequences of their actions. And let them make a decision. Hopefully they choose to avoid making people sick.
I’m an outbreak junkie because the sick and the dead are real people with families; individuals whose lives changed because they ate something. Something, for the most part, that wasn’t supposed to make them ill.

And if nothing is learned from those illnesses, and changes made, food doesn’t get any safer.

In an article in the Yuma Sun detailing produce farmer responses to upcoming Food Safety Modernization Act-related regulatory changes Kurt Nolte, executive director of Yuma County Cooperative Extension references a 2010 E. coli O145 outbreak linked to fresh produce. Investigators connected 33 cases (12 of which were hospitalized) with Arizona grown romaine lettuce.

“Data suggests the grower followed all guidelines,” Nolte said. An investigation traced the probable cause to a leaking septic tank in a vehicle park some distance away.

It’s frustrating when food folks say that all the right guidelines were followed and illnesses still happened. When this happens food safety professionals aren’t doing their jobs. Either the guidelines aren’t as good as they thought or implementation faltered (or a combination of both).

What was left out is that the FDA environmental assessment showed that maybe all guidelines weren’t followed. While the ultimate source of contamination was the septic tank, water used for diluting pesticides and fertilizers, and for irrigation, is the most likely vehicle of pathogen transmission onto/on the farm.

Liquid pesticides and fertilizers used on the lettuce crops were diluted with both municipal and local irrigation canal waters. Municipal water is treated and periodically monitored. Based on these factors, the municipal water was not considered a reasonably likely source of contamination.

Arizona Leafy Green Marketing Agreement guidelines do have parameters for microbial testing of water that is applied directly to the product, which includes microbial testing. Would be nice to see the history of the test results from the producer for the irrigation canals (and if it did happen, it would have been nice to see mention in the FDA environmental assessment. If the sampling didn’t provide any indicators of a problem the guidelines need to be revisited as Nolte notes, “From that incident, our charge is to research the risk of septic tanks leaking deep underground that may leach into a dirt irrigation ditch.”

Yeah, and show other producers the consequences of mixing potentially risky irrigation water with fungicides and pesticides.
 

CDC investigating campylobacter, Guillain-Barre’ increase in Arizona

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The Yuma Sun reports a recent increase in a rare nervous system disorder that can lead to paralysis has led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to send agents to Yuma to investigate.

Health officials announced Wednesday that health officials in Yuma County and San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., have reported an increase in acute diarrheal illnesses caused by campylobacter infections and cases of Guillain-Barre’ Syndrome (GBS) over the past three months.

As of July, there have been six confirmed cases and one pending case of GBS in Yuma County, said Becky Brooks director of the Yuma County Health District.
In a normal year, there are typically three to four cases.

“(In June) we started noticing an increase in the campylobacter infection first,” Brooks said. “And then we started hearing about a syndrome they call acute flaccid paralysis. There had been some people who had gone to (the Yuma hospital) and had been sent to Phoenix.

“Once we started hearing those names a few times, we started checking into it. That’s when we contacted the state, and the state then contacted the CDC.”

The CDC confirmed the increase in GBS constituted an “unusual cluster,” which happens with a variety of diseases and for a variety of reasons to occur across the country at any given time, Brooks said.