The Year of the Recall
Keeping our Food Safe
Release Date: July 18, 2007
Release Number: Con-02-05
It's a familiar scenario playing out in homes across the country; a news anchor reads a story about a major food recall, and the mad dash to the refrigerator begins to make sure their family isn't exposed to dangerous food or tainted products.
Recalls over the past year have included ready-to-eat produce, beef, peanut butter, pet food, even personal hygiene items, like toothpaste.
Most recently in June, a beef recall from Southern California meatpacker United Food Group, LLC expanded to include 5.7 million pounds of fresh and frozen beef that were contaminated with the potentially deadly E. coli bacteria, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fourteen people in six western states had fallen ill after eating the beef, which was butchered and shipped in April and could still be in consumer's freezers.
Last fall an outbreak of e-coli traced to packaged spinach led to concerns about the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables. Two months later, in Dec. of 2006, an e-coli outbreak traced to iceberg lettuce distributed to Taco Bell restaurants infected 71 people in the northeast.
With the growing evidence that e-coli is becoming a problem in ready-to-eat foods, and the meat counter, consumers are looking for some answers.
A professor of Animal Science at Iowa State University says the only solution to eliminate pathogens such as e-coli is irradiation.
"Right now, ready-to-eat products such as spinach, and lettuce, are rinsed with chlorinated water to kill any bacteria on the surface," explains Dennis Olson, who is also an affiliated faculty member at Institute for Food Safety and Security. "The problem is that with the outbreaks of e-coli, the bacteria were not just on the surface, but inside the product."
Olson says the irradiation technology allows ionization of chemical bonds, with the most vulnerable being the DNA molecule. "It causes some breakage of DNA bonds, which allows the DNA to become defunct, for bacteria to live it has to have a functional DNA."
Currently the FDA has approved irradiation to eliminate insects from wheat, potatoes, flour spices, tea, fruits, and vegetables, but not in ready-to-eat foods like bagged spinach. The technology is also used to kill pathogens in pork, poultry, eggs, and beef, but not all meat producers use it, as seen with the latest beef e-coli scare.
"If that beef had been irradiated we wouldn't have had an outbreak," says Olson. "Out of 8-billion pounds of ground beef produced every year in the U.S., only 18-million pounds have been treated by irradiation."
Olson says Omaha Steaks, and Schwan's Foods sell only irradiated ground beef, and meat producer Simec also carries a line of irradiated beef. He says part of the reason other large companies aren't using the technology is because they spend an extreme amount of time and money testing for e-coli. He adds, "Obviously that's not fool proof."
There is a petition pending with the FDA to approve irradiation for ready-to-eat foods, and Olson says the recent outbreaks may push the movement forward. "The real question is whether this catastrophe is big enough, or do we have to wait for the next one?"
Another food safety expert says American shopping habits are also part of the equation, as consumers expect to find strawberries in the produce section every month of the year, which opens the market to global food sources. Tracy Weeks, a coordinator of the food protection program for the Department of Public Health in Connecticut says it's impossible to control the varying degrees of sanitation and inspections from neighboring countries, but uses last year's spinach outbreak as a reminder that the problem occurs in the U. S. as well.
"People often point to eating locally, and say home grown farms are better. Those farmers can have the same problems of the big producers; the difference is if an outbreak occurs it will affect a smaller group of people."
A new voluntary movement is sweeping the country called the GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) program. The goal of GAPs is to reduce microbial risks in fruits and vegetables by developing programs that help growers and packers control them. The program is for farm owners, packing house operators, extension educators, and agricultural organizations.
Weeks' says the state of California has already adopted the GAPs program, and others including a few in New England are looking into it as well.
"It's another level of protection, if you see produce with a GAPs stamp on it and one without, most people will buy the produce with the stamp on it," says Weeks. "The growers associations seem to want more regulation because of the economic impact it could have on their products. Hopefully it will raise the standards and make it an even playing field."
For more information about GAPs program, or the latest recall news, go to the FDA website at www.fda.gov.
Last Modified: Thursday, 19-Jul-2007 11:09:54