Tomatoes

  • Traceability: I can't draw but I can trace

    Posted: March 26th, 2009 - 4:58pm by Doug Powell

    Traceability is one of those food safety buzzwords that’s been around for awhile but doesn’t seem to mean much. Last year during the Salmonella in tomatoes/jalapenos outbreak, health types expressed severe frustration that many food vendors had little idea where their tomatoes were coming from. Same with the current peanut mess – why are companies still figuring out, two months after the initial recalls, that they have the PCA crap in their products.

    A  report expected to be made public today by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that most food manufacturers and distributors cannot identify the suppliers or recipients of their products despite federal rules that require them to do so.

    The investigators contacted 220 food facilities to ask about their supplier records. But only 118 of these businesses were included in the study because the rest were not required under rules adopted by the F.D.A. in 2005 to maintain supplier and recipient records. Of those 118 firms, 70 failed to provide investigators with required information about suppliers or customers, with 6 of the companies failing to provide any information at all.

    United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel was scheduled to tell the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Agriculture today that,

    “… we have a very good story to tell in produce traceability.”

    However, one vendor told investigators that it kept no records of tomato purchases.

    Tomatoes have repeatedly been implicated in nationwide food contamination scares, including one last year. Fifteen facilities told investigators they mixed raw products from more than 10 farms.
     

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  • Peanut butter, spinach, tomato and Chinese toy sandwich

    Posted: February 10th, 2009 - 7:28am by Doug Powell

    Jon Stewart was poking fun at critics of President Obama’s stimulus package on The Daily Show last night, and came up with this quip:

    Funding for regulatory agencies? Please. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a peanut butter, spinach, tomato and Chinese toy sandwich to finish.

    The line comes about 3:23 into this video.
     

     
     
     
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  • Facing a recall without superhero senses leaves some vulnerable to confusion

    Posted: January 30th, 2009 - 3:06pm by Casey Jacob

    I don’t like fresh tomatoes. Generally, my careful avoidance of them is a fairly unique practice. At least, I thought so until I met Bret. We stand together in our quest for vegetables that don't leak acid on the rest of the salad.

    We were on our honeymoon when the outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul in tomatoes and/or hot peppers hit the news. Many people joined our stance on tomatoes then... but it took me a while to realize it.

    Since I wasn’t reading FSnet while we were gone, I had to hear the warnings put out on eating tomatoes like a regular consumer would. It was like my superhero senses were turned off.

    At the time, I wasn’t in the habit of watching the news. And according to the results of a Rutgers Food Policy Institute (FPI) survey,

    “The majority of respondents (66 percent) first heard about the advisory on television.”

    Throughout our trip, we ate at cafes, buffets, and casual dining establishments. When we didn’t eat out, we stopped at Wal-Mart for cereal and sandwich supplies. None of those places showed signs of produce being recalled.

    The survey found,

    “A small minority (8 percent) first heard about it from restaurants and retailers.”

    As it happened, some of the first news I received came from my step-dad’s mom, who understood the problem to be in tomatoes sold with the vine still attached.

    Hearing through the tomato-vine was problematic, though. I later learned the CDC advised,

    “…persons with increased risk of severe infections…should not eat raw Roma or red round tomatoes other than those sold attached to the vine or grown at home…”

    Those two words, “other than”, were missed (or misunderstood) at some point in the chain of communication that ended with me.

    Lead author of the Rutgers FPI report, Dr. Cara Cuite said in a press release,

    “Our results suggest that consumers may have a hard time taking in many details about these types of food-borne problems.”

    Almost half (48 percent) of people surveyed indicated they were not sure which types of tomatoes were under suspicion.

    I was back at superhero headquarters (i.e. in front of my Mac) when Salmonella Saintpaul was found in a sample of jalapenos from Mexico, and again when the outbreak strain was isolated from a Mexican serrano pepper and the water used to irrigate it.

    Most consumers weren't so lucky. From the survey,

    “The researchers found that while almost all respondents (93 percent) were aware that tomatoes were believed to [be] the source of the illness, only 68 percent were aware…that peppers were also associated with the outbreak.”

    Dr. Cara Cuite commented in the press release,

    “This research is especially timely in light of the growing number of recalls as a result of the Salmonella outbreak associated with peanut butter and peanut paste.”
     

    How can consumers be better informed? One practice seen in both outbreaks that helped alleviate some confusion was the use of club membership or “loyalty card” information to contact customers who had recently bought recalled products.

    What else can be done to clear things up? After all, regular consumers don’t have superhero senses.
     

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  • Produce leadership: memories of convenience?

    Posted: July 29th, 2008 - 3:11pm by Doug Powell

    The produce industry in the U.S. deserves better leadership. Or at least better writers.

    At least that’s my take-home message after reading the screed by Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., who are preaching the it’s-time-to-change message at least 10 years too late.

    The title itself -- We can't go back, so let's charge straight ahead -- suggests a memory of convenience or a preference of forgetfulness.

    “Our industry's key focus now should be to exert as much control as possible over our destiny moving forward. We are, after all, in the best position to lead the task at hand.”

    Amy, my French literature wife says,

    “When a trauma occurs such as the one that just took place in the produce industry with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, people generally take one of two paths, according to psychoanalytic theory. They either dwell in the past, in the time before the rupture occurred, and pretend that the past was perfect, or they focus solely on the future. In either case, they ignore the painful present and the immediate working out of the trauma at hand.”

    I’m not so literate. More literal. Literally, shouldn’t the produce industry have taken control of their destiny after any of the 20-some outbreaks in leafy greens or the 12 outbreaks in tomatoes since 1990? What about after all the other outbreaks in fresh produce?

    Casey Jacob, Benjamin Chapman and I have a chapter in a book coming out later this year. It goes something like this:

    From the October, 1996, E. coli O157:H7 in Odwalla fresh juice outbreak to the Sept. 2006 E. coli O157 in spinach outbreak,

    “almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry. … (But) 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? …

    “A decade of evidence existed highlighting problems with fresh produce, warning letters were written, yet little was seemingly accomplished. The real challenge for food safety professionals, is to garner support for safe food practices in the absence of an outbreak, to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, from farm-to-fork, at all times, and not just in the glare of the media spotlight.”

    The produce leaders also write in their letter that, now, after all these fresh fruit and vegetable outbreaks,

    “Working together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state departments of agriculture and foreign governments, there must be extensive industry training and education, to help every employee at every company understand the role they play in creating a food safety culture.”

    Wow, sounds like something I’d write. Except I’d throw in an evaluation component to see if the training and education actually work. But I see no evidence the industry wants to undertake such work.

    I take that back. Lots of individual growers, and I’ve had the privilege of working with several, want to do the basic work and whatever they can to ensure a safe harvest. They want to know if their people know how to wash the shit off of their hands, and how to keep the shit out of fields of fresh produce.

    The associations, the industry leaders, have apparently given up, and now “support fair but mandatory produce food safety rules.” They want government to do their job.
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  • Food safety in pregnancy is not simple

    Posted: July 22nd, 2008 - 7:37pm by Amy Hubbell

    Yesterday I enjoyed an aperitif at Houlihan’s with my friend Angélique. Although the conversation was excellent, ordering was complicated for me. I wasn’t supposed to eat at least half of the items offered, and another third of them didn’t sound good to me.

    Pregnancy food safety guidelines combined with changing tastes and sensitivity to smells make ordering very difficult. On our trip home from Australia on Sunday, for example, I wanted to grab a sandwich at LAX, and because we were at a deli, that left only one choice for me: a chicken Panini. Everything else had unheated deli meat – known to put me at risk for listeria.

    At Houlihan’s, I used to enjoy the tuna wontons, but the tuna is only seared and I don’t trust raw fish right now. I couldn’t eat the very appetizing brie starter because the waitress didn’t think it was heated, and the bruschetta that we did share was a big question mark for me. It had goat’s cheese together with the tomato mix. We now know that tomatoes are all supposedly safe from Salmonella, but how safe was the cheese? I take at least a little comfort in knowing that I’ve been fully vaccinated against Hepatitis A thanks to my past wild travels. Angélique and I also shared a spinach and artichoke dip that came with fresh cilantro and scallions sprinkled all over the chips. I grow my own cilantro at home and know how hard it is to keep it clean and out of the snails’ reach …

    Finally, very hungry, I just ate and tried to ignore the smaller risk factors. I did my best but I still didn’t feel confident that my food was safe. Who knows or can control what was happening in the kitchen?

    For those who want to tell me, and every pregnant woman, how simple it is to eat safely during pregnancy, I beg to differ. See “Listeria warning for pregnant women” for example. Dr. Paul McKeown says, “Simple measures such as ensuring that the fridge is in good working order with the temperature between two and five degrees Celsius, eating food that is well within its use-by date so that harmful bugs will not have had time to grow and practising good general food hygiene will reduce the risk of listeriosis.”

    We, as consumers, can reduce some of the risks but we cannot eliminate them. And I find that the more I know about food safety, the more complicated all of this becomes. When you’re hungry and the airline offers you a roll with cheddar and pastrami … and you ask your food safety expert partner, “if I pick off the pastrami, is the sandwich safe to eat and how much cross contamination might have taken place?” and he shrugs … sometimes you have to decide for yourself.


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  • All tomatoes cleared for consumption

    Posted: July 17th, 2008 - 6:27pm by Doug Powell

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared all fresh tomatoes on the market as safe for consumption, but questions about how and when public health agencies inform the public and issue advisories such as those in the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak are just beginning to be assessed.

    Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, said this afternoon,

    "We are lifting the tomato warning and we believe that consumers can now enjoy all types of fresh tomatoes.”

    Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said,

    "It's clear to us that tomatoes do not explain all the clusters.”

    The government still doesn't know what caused the salmonella outbreak, which has sickened at least 1,220 people, but reiterated earlier warnings that the people most at risk of salmonella should avoid hot peppers -- jalapenos and serranos.

    Acheson said that within the past 48 hours the FDA sent a team to Mexico to investigate a packing house that receives peppers from a number of farms. He said the investigation there is ongoing, but it's not believed that the firm also processes tomatoes.
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  • Doug to People magazine: Follow the poop

    Posted: July 13th, 2008 - 6:49pm by Doug Powell

    An old friend from Kitchener, Ontario, e-mailed me with the news:

    "How cool are you? Saw you quoted in article about tomatoes in this week’s People magazine."

    I’m not as cool as the CDC’s Bob Tauxe, and cool may not be the word when talking about food safety nerds. But it was fun talking to the reporter, who thought the celebrity barf section of barfblog was particularly apt.

    There’s been lots of media as the Salmonella saga continues to unwind: 1090 sick in 42 states and Canada. As part of enhanced testing at the U.S.-Mexican border, FDA found a different Salmonella in a shipment of basil. More poop in produce.

    Sysco has stopped distributing fresh jalapeño peppers, food fear fatigue is settling in, farmers are losing money, government agencies are losing credibility, and, as I keep reminding journalists who want to blame someone, there are a lot of sick people out there.

    "If they (FDA) go too slow, they're criticized. If they go too fast, they're criticized," says Douglas Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University. "The investigation is still ongoing. The time for finger-pointing isn't there yet."

    Jeffrey Weiss of The Dallas Morning News was one of my favorite interviews.

    As Dr. Douglas Powell, scientific director of the International Food Safety Network, puts it: "Follow the poop. … A lot of eating fresh vegetables," Dr. Powell said, "is an act of faith."


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  • Salmonella on The View

    Posted: July 10th, 2008 - 7:13pm by Ben Chapman

    The U.S. Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak was discussed on one of my least favorite (but often watched) shows, The View, today.  I do enjoy (note sarcasm here) a discussion of hot topics on the show, and sandwiched between Joy's kidnapped blackberry and the Christie Brinkley divorce settlement was a discussion about Elisabeth's fear of tomatoes.  She shared with the audience that she hasn't eaten tomatoes since the start of the outbreak. 

    Elisabeth (you may remember her from Survivor: Australia Outback) was quoted as saying "I haven't had a tomato, and I love them, I miss them, but now apparently they are trying to pass the blame onto cilantro."

    She went on to say that she thinks that is unfair, and that "the tomato should step up and take responsibility for what they are doing."

    Elisabeth, what about the jalapeno?

    Check out The View's video page, click on Hot Topics 7/10: Tomatoes.
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  • Jalapenos linked to salmonella outbreak

    Posted: July 9th, 2008 - 3:12pm by Doug Powell

    Elizabeth Weise of USA Today has just reported that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this afternoon that fresh, raw jalapeño peppers have been linked to the salmonella saintpaul outbreak and the young, the old and those with impaired immune systems should avoid eating them.

    Robert Tauxe, CDC's deputy director of the CDC's division of food borne diseases said,

    "persons who want to reduce their risk of salmonella infection should take similar precautions.”

    The number of ill people crossed the 1,000 mark today as well, with 1,017 confirmed cases, of which 203 were hospitalized, Tauxe says, making it the worst outbreak in years.

    The CDC is also still advising the public to avoid the tomato types grown in regions not yet cleared by FDA, because the initial research showed a clear link between tomatoes and illness. However that includes only a very small number of tomato growing states at this point.

    But a second investigation found a strong link between the consumption of fresh peppers.



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  • CNN video: Tomato farmers hit hard

    Posted: July 8th, 2008 - 4:02pm by Ben Chapman

    CNN has posted a web-only video report follow-up to the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, from a tomato producer slant.   There unfortunately isn't an easy way to embed the CNN video here, but click here to see it.

    Jimmy Shaffer of the Island Tomato Growers in South Carolina was cited as saying that he plans on maybe filing a lawsuit against the FDA for the way that the investigation has been handled, and that the FDA "threw everybody under a big blanket and let everyone fight for themselves". 

    Makes marketing food safety, if you can prove what you are doing, look like a pretty good idea.
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