Those of us in the food industry certainly remember the salmonella outbreak that hit California spinach farmers in 2006. Shortly before the recall was announced, we had just catered a large coastal wedding, where the bride was adamant about having a spinach salad for all 200 guests. While luckily the outbreak didn't include our organic spinach salad, it was still our responsibility to notify the newly married couple of possible contamination. Trust me - it wasn't a fun phone call.
It seems, though, that the salmonella outbreak really started a storm of food recalls that hasn't stopped. In a February 2009 survey, 92% of Americans are aware, and greatly concerned, about the increasing food safety problems plaguing the US food supply. Hot on the heels of the recent peanut butter recall, just over 2,000 adults nationwide were interviewed on their food safety concerns - and the results were very interesting indeed.
One statistic that really jumped out at me - nearly 73% of those polled felt that food safety was equally as important as the war on terror!
Will the new Obama government finally bump food safety to the top of the priority list? According to today's NY Times, they're at least paying attention. After nearly two dozen food safety hearings over the last year, on everything from pet food to tomatoes, representatives from both parties promised yesterday at a House hearing to address the long list of FDA shortcomings, including the possibility of splitting the agency into two separate entities, with one focused entirely on food safety.
“We have before us one of the finest messes in history,” said Representative John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, who accused both Congress and the White House of allowing the F.D.A. to become incompetent.
“As a result of the failure of giving Food and Drug the resources it needs,” Mr. Dingell continued, “people are dying.”
Let's hope the right people are finally paying attention. Are you concerned about your food safety? Make your voice heard! Lobby your local Representatives about the importance of food safety in your hometown.
Bill Marler, a personal injury and products liability lawyer who focuses in food borne illnesses, says the end result will be roughly a billion dollars. That's billion with a B.
...recalls come with astounding costs. One of my good friends in the food-processing industry estimates that the peanut recall will cost well over $500 million – that’s half a billion bucks. It’s impossible to assign precise numbers, but you can start with the costs of tracking down, retrieving and transporting millions of items, most of which have already found their way onto retail shelves and kitchen cabinets.
Kellogg, just one of the companies that recalled products recently, has estimated those costs at $75 million – for just one company.
Then there are the lost sales – not just of the tainted products themselves, but most likely of related peanut products that may be completely safe. The tomato Salmonella recall last year resulted in $100 million in lost tomato sales – even though the real culprit proved to be peppers. E. coli-tainted spinach cost that industry over $175 million even though the outbreak was linked to one fifty acre farm. The peanut industry estimates that its sales already have plummeted by more than 25 percent, which breaks down to at least $500 million in losses on 2.6 million tons of raw peanut sales.
The issue with recalls is that they affect some people at a physical level - the getting sick part, which Marler estimates will end up costing close to 35 million dollars, most of which will be covered by insurance.
But recalls have a larger cost that remains hidden to most people who read these stories. Most, if not all of the costs from recalls and lost sales are not covered by insurance. Recalls trickle down into small food businesses and these costs affect their bottom lines. When recalls occur, especially ones like the most recent peanut paste recall, people can and do lose jobs and businesses can and do shut their doors.
What's so bloody frustrating is that something like this could have been prevented. It SHOULD have been prevented. Industries deal with risk assessment all of the time.
Wait. Let me rephrases that. Businesses deal with risk assessment all of the time. They weigh the pros and cons of risks versus rewards and create of plan of action However, it takes only one lazy or greedy business who either unintentionally or intentionally takes the risk who can take out an entire industry.
h/t Marion Nestle
Being negligent is one thing, but apparently Stewart Parnell, the owner of the Peanut Corp. of America is in a special class of stupid and evil.
From Talking Points Memo:
The owner of a peanut company urged his workers to ship tainted products after receiving test results identifying salmonella, imploring employees to "turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money," according to internal company e-mails disclosed Wednesday by a House committee.
The company e-mails obtained by the House panel showed that Peanut Corp. of America owner Stewart Parnell ordered the shipments tainted with the bacteria because he was worried about lost sales.
At one point, Parnell said his workers "desperately at least need to turn the raw peanuts on our floor into money" and at another point told his plant manager to "turn them loose" after learning some peanuts were contaminated with salmonella.
The disclosures came in correspondence released by a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Wednesday during a hearing on the salmonella outbreak that has sickened 600 people, may be linked to eight deaths and has led to one of the largest recalls in history with more than 1,800 product pulled.
Two perspectives here. One, there is the obvious public health angle. Intentionally putting tainted food in the marketplace is a criminal act. This isn't negligence, where one can argue plausible deniability. The guy knew his food was bad, and put it into his products anyway. All in the name of profits.
Here's what Kenneth Kendrick, a former assistant plant manager of Peanut Corp.'s Texas facility said about their facility.
Kenneth Kendrick, a former assistant plant manager of the Texas facility, said in an interview that the plant had a leaky roof, rodent infestation and poor process controls. A second former employee of the Texas plant, who asked for anonymity because of legal concerns, confirmed Mr. Kendrick’s descriptions of the plant and its processes. Mr. Kendrick left the plant about two years ago.
“This was a disgusting plant,” Mr. Kendrick said. “We cut corners.”
The plant always had standing water in its basement, Mr. Kendrick said. The roof leaked so badly that when it rained, workers were instructed to raise tarps to the ceiling to direct the water away from peanuts and plant equipment, the two said. Rain at night went unattended, they said.
Since bird feces peppered the roof, the leaks were an obvious concern, the two said.
That an inspection on Jan. 12 of this year by the Texas Department of State Health Services found no serious deficiencies raises a multitude of questions about the effectiveness of that Department.
By some accounts, the Georgia plant, the first of the Peanut Corps. plants to be closed had similar issues.
Two, there's the business aspect. His malicious act not only affected his company, but that of dozens of others who were working with him on good faith. He put his company and employees at risk the moment he made that decision.
Stupid. Stupid and evil. Expect many lawsuits from many of the companies who worked with Peanut Corp. in good faith, which will likely bankrupt the company. When that happens, employees who trusted their owner knew what was best will lose their jobs.
As for Stewart Parnell? He needs to sit in a jail cell with photographs of everyone who got ill, and should be required to annually visit each grave site of those who died from his act.
The punch line to all of this is that Mr. Parnell serves on an industry advisory board that helps the U.S. Department of Agriculture set quality standards for peanuts. Talk about irony!
There needs to be a reckoning, and not just at the industry level but at the regulatory level as well. This happened on the FDA's watch...again. Clearly the system that is supposed to provide adequate oversight does not do so. We know the reasons...the USDA is in the pocket of agri-business (by design), and the FDA is dramatically underfunded.
Let me repeat something that I have stated before in other posts: The system is broken. A regulatory agency that works in reactionary mode isn't a regulatory agency at all, it's a cleanup crew.
737 views • Categories: FDA FDA to detain some food shipments from China.
WASHINGTON - Federal health officials on Thursday ordered dozens of imported foods from China held at the border as possible health risks. Most are ethnic treats, including snacks, drinks and chocolates.
The Food and Drug Administration has had an import alert in place since Oct. 10 for specific products found contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine and melamine-related compounds.
It’s unusual for the FDA to put such a broad hold on goods from an entire country, not just a few rogue manufacturers. The order, which covers products made with milk, is a precaution to keep out foods contaminated with melamine, which can cause serious kidney problems.
This should have happened even before the melamine problem surfaced. There was more than enough evidence surrounding the problems with Chinese food imports over the past two years that should have caused the FDA to respond.
At least the New York Times seems to think so.
several food safety experts say, industry leaders are also questioning whether the weak produce-tracking rules that many of them once championed are more a curse than a blessing. As they tally the financial losses from the largest food-borne outbreak of illness in the last decade, produce businesses now show signs of embracing broader regulations for traceability.
“I think that now the industry is realizing based on this outbreak that we need to have the ability to trace back so we can segregate where the problem is and not devastate the entire industry,” said Mike Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.
Of course one could say that the growers of tomatoes and spinach have already been devastated, but I'm really just picking at nits at this point. Nothing forces deep introspection better than losing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, I'll remain cautiously optimistic. They could screw everything up by going the route of the Cattle industry (Tests? We don't need no stinkin' tests).
Today the FDA posted the following to their Website:
After a lengthy investigation, the FDA has determined that fresh tomatoes now available in the domestic market are not associated with the current outbreak. As a result, the agency is removing its June 7 warning against eating certain types of red raw tomatoes.
They go on to saw that the salmonella problem is with Serrano Peppers...but really, how are they sure of that after spending the past several weeks telling us it was tomatoes? And more importantly, how can we be sure?
Oh, and the tomato industry? Sorry about your loss of 100 million to 250 million dollars. I'm sure you understand.
Psst...Tomato Industry? I'd get yourself some lawyers. People who cause a quarter of a billion dollar mistake should not get a free pass.
So, has there been any good news in the FDA recently? Well they did give themselves bonuses and pay raises...
Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., says he was stunned to learn that 28 senior FDA executives took in a combined $1 million in bonuses last year, pushing their pay above that of members of Congress, federal judges - and even some cabinet secretaries.
I suppose it's good to know that instead of being merely inept, they're immoral as well. That's something, isn't it?
(h/t Jack from Fork & Bottle)
976 views • Categories: FDA From a recent article on the Tomato/Salmonella outbreak from the UPI comes the following section. The emphasis is mine.
New York City health officials Wednesday said six more cases of salmonella poisoning caused by tainted tomatoes have been reported in the city.
They have been added to one previously reported case in New York, The New York Times said.
The new cases came as the head of U.S. food safety efforts said it's possible the government will never track down the source of the outbreak. David Acheson, the Food and Drug Administration's "food safety czar," says that's because fresh produce like tomatoes aren't consistently labeled as to origin, and also because the outbreak, which sickened more than 277 people and hospitalized 43, is so widespread, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
So let's see here - we have a nationwide outbreak of salmonella in our tomato supply, and the head of the FDA is saying that it's likely that they they will never know it's cause.
Two questions that I wish Mr. Acheson would answerimmediately pop into my mind:
Of course most people who are even marginally familiar with the issues surrounding the ineffectiveness of the FDA have an answer - More effective oversight of America's food producers and of food imports into the United States. But this requires both more money for the FDA and the political courage to embrace this very simple first step.
Let's revisit food history over the past two years:
It's a simple question really, even if it may be rhetorical: How is this acceptable?
If you haven't already heard, there's yet another produce recall. This time it is the ubiquitous tomato which is being pulled off of shelves and menus across the country.
The Food and Drug Administration is expanding its warning to consumers nationwide that a salmonellosis outbreak has been linked to consumption of certain raw red plum, red Roma, and red round tomatoes, and products containing these raw, red tomatoes.
FDA recommends that consumers not eat raw red Roma, raw red plum, raw red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes unless the tomatoes are from the sources listed below. If unsure of where tomatoes are grown or harvested, consumers are encouraged to contact the store where the tomato purchase was made. Consumers should continue to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached, or tomatoes grown at home.
On June 5, using traceback and other distribution pattern information, FDA published a list of states, territories, and countries where tomatoes are grown and harvested which have not been associated with this outbreak. This updated list includes: Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Netherlands, and Puerto Rico. The list is available at http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/tomatoes.html#retailers. This list will be updated as more information becomes available.
As you can see from the above list, the source of the outbreak is yet to be communicated to the public at large.
Here at home, the Seattle P-I covered the topic, and came up with this quote:
"Nobody has ever seen a recall like this," said Craig Wilson, Costco's vice president for food safety and quality assurance. "We were lucky at Costco. It worked out that everything we were selling came from states that were considered safe."
Actually, Mr. Wilson, we have seen a recall like this. Remember last year's spinach recall?
Let me be perfectly clear here. Each recall that occurs on a national scale, whether it's spinach, tomatoes, or peanut butter, is a failure of our food agencies. Whether it's due to lack of oversight, or indifferent oversight, it matters not. They have failed to do their job.
And while the hospitalizations of consumers is tragic, statistically speaking, it's unlikely that either you or I will come down with salmonella from a tomato. The real failure of the FDA is to protect the companies who actually do diligent work to prevent such outbreaks. The FDA either will not or cannot tell us where the source of the outbreaks, and as such, every producer will suffer some level of financial repercussions, likely on a very large scale. Lost revenues mean lost jobs.
Just ask the Spinach growers in New Jersey who collectively lost millions of dollars due to the outbreak caused by a farm somewhere in Salinas, California.
h/t to Jack at Fork & Bottle
The big food news of the day is that the FDA has officially approved cloned meat. From the Washington Post:
A long-awaited final report from the Food and Drug Administration concludes that foods from healthy cloned animals and their offspring are as safe as those from ordinary animals, effectively removing the last U.S. regulatory barrier to the marketing of meat and milk from cloned cattle, pigs and goats.
Since the marketplace has not been clamoring for cloned meat, one suspects that the quick turn around on this process was due in large part from the various companies and their respective lobbying groups who wanted to get this done.
I remain skeptical, for a variety of reasons, about the viability of cloned meat in the supermarket. I suspect that the meat itself could be fine, depending upon how the cloned animal was cared for. But my suspicion is that this is being pushed by those who treat animals as commodities rather than, y'know, animals. So if cloned animals are to be primarily found in Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO's) don't expect top grade meat.
Bonnie, over at the Ethicurean has noted some of the same concerns that arise from the study's quick turn around:
Weiss reports that the FDA’s 968-page risk assessment includes hundreds of pages of raw data. I can’t wait to read all of it and be reassured. Especially since in the end, as Weiss puts it, "agency scientists decided to use the same simple but effective standard used by farmers since the dawn of agriculture: If a farm animal appears in all respects to be healthy, then presume that food from that animal is safe to eat."
It’s like pornography. They know it when they see it.
That standard was effective when we were dealing with animals that had been bred and fed naturally, not scientifically. I hate to be the one to point out that plenty of "mad" cows looked normal enough to be fed to people, giving them Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And that we still don’t understand the particles called "prions" that caused CJD or bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
This entire study gives me the feeling that they arrived at their conclusions first, and then went out in search of the data that supported their conclusion. The fact that the first public face they put on this report turns out to be little more than the FDA saying "Well, dern it, they didn't look sick" doesn't really go a long way to inspire confidence.
The next issue would be the selling of cloned meat and seeing if the public will put aside their moral and ethical concerns and eat the cloned meat. My suspicion is that this will be a bit of a tough sell, especially since the meat industries haven't had the best of public relations of late. But I suspect sometime in the future we'll see reports on cloned meat being "generally regarded as safe", which is industry code for "We never really got around to fully testing the meat for it's susceptibility for disease".
The one item I did find heartening was the distinction made between cloned animals and gene altered animals. If the Washington Post is to be believed, the FDA has said "it will not approve gene-altered animals as food without additional tests for safety". From my limited Biochemistry -deficient viewpoint, it seems as if the "gene-altered" mountain should be a much taller one to climb. It's good to see that the FDA recognizes at least this much.
1828 views • Categories: FDA This can't be good for morale at the beleaguered F.D.A. Picture this...You know your company is having problems, so you get some advisers to tell you what is wrong, and what is the ramifications of things being wrong.
The advisers come back and say:
...over the last two decades, the agency’s public health responsibilities have soared while its appropriations have barely budged. The result is that the F.D.A. is falling farther and farther behind in carrying out its responsibilities and understanding the science it needs to do its many jobs.
“F.D.A.’s inability to keep up with scientific advances means that American lives are at risk...
As the cliche states - Either you're part of the solution or part of the problem. According to their own advisers, the F.D.A. is clearly part of the problem.
And there's precious little evidence to show that the advisers are incorrect.
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