Final report on spinach offers few new revelations
Final report on spinach offers few new revelations
The final report on spinach by the joint efforts of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration and the California Department of Health Services offered much detail of investigative efforts but few revelations that have not already become public in recent weeks and months.
The report points to Paicines Ranch in San Benito County as the likely source for the E. coli outbreak. It's the first time that authorities acknowledged that they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch, near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics.
As has been acknowledged throughout the more than six-month period since the outbreak, investigators said they could not make a definitive determination as to how the E. coli contaminated the spinach.
The identification of Paicines Ranch -- rumored for months -- was made in late February by Bill Marler of the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark. His firm represents 90 individual cases involving people who were sickened or died as a result of eating the tainted spinach.
The final report, Investigation of an Escherichia coli O157:H7 Outbreak Associated with Dole Pre-Packaged Spinach, states that on Sept. 14, 2006, FDA's San Francisco district office and the California Department of Health Services, working jointly as the California Food Emergency Response Team, known as CalFERT, initiated an investigation at Natural Selection Foods LLC, doing business as Earthbound Farm, located in San Juan Bautista, CA.
The scope of the report encompasses CalFERT's investigations at Natural Selection and at potential source fields of the contaminated spinach in the central coast region of California.
CalFERT investigators examined the spinach washing, processing and packaging process at Natural Selection and collected finished product and environmental samples. No E. coli O157:H7 was identified in samples taken from Natural Selection, and no obvious sources for introduction of the pathogen were identified at the Natural Selection facility.
However, a number of conditions were observed "that may have provided opportunities for the spread of pathogens, if pathogens arrived on incoming spinach," the report stated. Investigators conducted a traceback of spinach product codes obtained from ill consumers to identify potential source fields of contaminated spinach.
Nationwide, investigations identified 13 bags of "Dole" brand baby spinach, manufactured by Natural Selection, collected from ill consumer households that contained E. coli O157:H7 and which matched the outbreak strain. Product codes were available for only 11 of these bags, all of which were "Dole" brand baby spinach bearing product codes that began with "P227A," indicating production on Aug. 15, 2006. This code traced back to spinach harvested from four fields in Monterey and San Benito counties.
E. coli O157:H7 was found in environmental samples collected near each of the four fields that provided spinach for the P227A product code. However, E. coli O157:H7 associated with only one of the four fields -- located on the Paicines Ranch in San Benito County -- had a Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis pattern indistinguishable from the outbreak strain.
The PFGE pattern was identified in river water, cattle feces and wild pig feces on the Paicines Ranch, the closest of which was just under one mile from the spinach field. Land on the ranch was primarily utilized for cattle grazing by the large Paicines Ranch grass-fed beef operation. A relatively small amount of land on this ranch was leased for ready-to-eat crop production by Mission Organics.
The ready-to-eat produce from this leased acreage was sold as conventional produce, but organic growing practices were used, as the leased acreage was in the three-year transition phase required for organic certification.
The report includes numerous recommendations for growing, harvesting, cooling and processing ready-to-eat crops.
FDA recently issued a draft final guidance, Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Fruits & Vegetables, which recommended measures to prevent microbial contamination during the processing of fresh- cut produce.
Natural Selection has introduced a four-level food-safety program that builds in numerous safety steps, starting with grower site selection and moving all the way to shipped product. On the farm, for instance, seed, irrigation water, soil, soil amendments and plant tissues are tested for pathogens.
A statement from Natural Selection spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna following release of the report said in part that Natural Selection Foods "will continue to work with government regulatory agencies, industry associations and the country's leading experts in food science toward a greater understanding of how we can minimize the dangers presented by these pathogens. We hope that at some point, we will see the development of nationwide standards."
Ms. Cabaluna's statement went on to say that with the guidance of a panel of nationally renowned food-safety scientists, Natural Selection has "put in place a rigorous food-safety program based on learning from the beef industry. Our program includes multiple barriers and extensive pathogen-specific testing, which we have implemented with our growers and in our processing facility," and that the company believes its salads "are safer than ever before."
In response to the report, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) said that the report "is a very detailed description of their investigations; however, that is all it is. We still do not have any concrete answers, and it is unclear why this report is only coming out now, six months after the outbreak."
Rep. Farr, a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Committee, has introduced a bill, H.R. 912, that authorizes $26 million for food-safety research specifically dedicated to fresh produce, as well as funds for emergency assistance to producers and handlers of fresh spinach who suffered losses when they voluntarily pulled uncontaminated spinach from markets in reaction to the FDA's public health advisory issued in September 2006.
Following release of the final report, California Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) released a statement that said in part that the report "should have been released months ago" and that it is "obvious we need to look at strengthening organic growing standards."
Mr. Maldonado wrote that it is "clear [that] the need to develop an industry- wide marketing order is immediate so all growers of leafy greens work together to safeguard public health."
Mr. Maldonado further wrote that most important is that this report "reveals we still don't know enough about the E. coli O157:H7 pathogen."
The report points to Paicines Ranch in San Benito County as the likely source for the E. coli outbreak. It's the first time that authorities acknowledged that they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain on Paicines Ranch, near a field the ranch leased to Mission Organics.
As has been acknowledged throughout the more than six-month period since the outbreak, investigators said they could not make a definitive determination as to how the E. coli contaminated the spinach.
The identification of Paicines Ranch -- rumored for months -- was made in late February by Bill Marler of the Seattle-based law firm Marler Clark. His firm represents 90 individual cases involving people who were sickened or died as a result of eating the tainted spinach.
The final report, Investigation of an Escherichia coli O157:H7 Outbreak Associated with Dole Pre-Packaged Spinach, states that on Sept. 14, 2006, FDA's San Francisco district office and the California Department of Health Services, working jointly as the California Food Emergency Response Team, known as CalFERT, initiated an investigation at Natural Selection Foods LLC, doing business as Earthbound Farm, located in San Juan Bautista, CA.
The scope of the report encompasses CalFERT's investigations at Natural Selection and at potential source fields of the contaminated spinach in the central coast region of California.
CalFERT investigators examined the spinach washing, processing and packaging process at Natural Selection and collected finished product and environmental samples. No E. coli O157:H7 was identified in samples taken from Natural Selection, and no obvious sources for introduction of the pathogen were identified at the Natural Selection facility.
However, a number of conditions were observed "that may have provided opportunities for the spread of pathogens, if pathogens arrived on incoming spinach," the report stated. Investigators conducted a traceback of spinach product codes obtained from ill consumers to identify potential source fields of contaminated spinach.
Nationwide, investigations identified 13 bags of "Dole" brand baby spinach, manufactured by Natural Selection, collected from ill consumer households that contained E. coli O157:H7 and which matched the outbreak strain. Product codes were available for only 11 of these bags, all of which were "Dole" brand baby spinach bearing product codes that began with "P227A," indicating production on Aug. 15, 2006. This code traced back to spinach harvested from four fields in Monterey and San Benito counties.
E. coli O157:H7 was found in environmental samples collected near each of the four fields that provided spinach for the P227A product code. However, E. coli O157:H7 associated with only one of the four fields -- located on the Paicines Ranch in San Benito County -- had a Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis pattern indistinguishable from the outbreak strain.
The PFGE pattern was identified in river water, cattle feces and wild pig feces on the Paicines Ranch, the closest of which was just under one mile from the spinach field. Land on the ranch was primarily utilized for cattle grazing by the large Paicines Ranch grass-fed beef operation. A relatively small amount of land on this ranch was leased for ready-to-eat crop production by Mission Organics.
The ready-to-eat produce from this leased acreage was sold as conventional produce, but organic growing practices were used, as the leased acreage was in the three-year transition phase required for organic certification.
The report includes numerous recommendations for growing, harvesting, cooling and processing ready-to-eat crops.
FDA recently issued a draft final guidance, Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards of Fresh-cut Fruits & Vegetables, which recommended measures to prevent microbial contamination during the processing of fresh- cut produce.
Natural Selection has introduced a four-level food-safety program that builds in numerous safety steps, starting with grower site selection and moving all the way to shipped product. On the farm, for instance, seed, irrigation water, soil, soil amendments and plant tissues are tested for pathogens.
A statement from Natural Selection spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna following release of the report said in part that Natural Selection Foods "will continue to work with government regulatory agencies, industry associations and the country's leading experts in food science toward a greater understanding of how we can minimize the dangers presented by these pathogens. We hope that at some point, we will see the development of nationwide standards."
Ms. Cabaluna's statement went on to say that with the guidance of a panel of nationally renowned food-safety scientists, Natural Selection has "put in place a rigorous food-safety program based on learning from the beef industry. Our program includes multiple barriers and extensive pathogen-specific testing, which we have implemented with our growers and in our processing facility," and that the company believes its salads "are safer than ever before."
In response to the report, U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) said that the report "is a very detailed description of their investigations; however, that is all it is. We still do not have any concrete answers, and it is unclear why this report is only coming out now, six months after the outbreak."
Rep. Farr, a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Committee, has introduced a bill, H.R. 912, that authorizes $26 million for food-safety research specifically dedicated to fresh produce, as well as funds for emergency assistance to producers and handlers of fresh spinach who suffered losses when they voluntarily pulled uncontaminated spinach from markets in reaction to the FDA's public health advisory issued in September 2006.
Following release of the final report, California Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) released a statement that said in part that the report "should have been released months ago" and that it is "obvious we need to look at strengthening organic growing standards."
Mr. Maldonado wrote that it is "clear [that] the need to develop an industry- wide marketing order is immediate so all growers of leafy greens work together to safeguard public health."
Mr. Maldonado further wrote that most important is that this report "reveals we still don't know enough about the E. coli O157:H7 pathogen."
