Produce wholesaler to resume lettuce shipments, questions E. coli probe
Produce wholesaler to resume lettuce shipments, questions E. coli probe
The produce wholesaler named by Michigan authorities in an E. coli outbreak probe said that it will resume shipping Iceberg lettuce with new food-safety precautions, although it questions the epidemiological evidence that associated its lettuce with the outbreak in the first place.
On Sept. 26, Michigan officials named Detroit-based Aunt Mid's Produce Co. as the wholesaler responsible for selling bagged, industrial-sized packages of Iceberg lettuce that were served in restaurants and institutions, including colleges and a jail, where people got sick.
At the time, the Michigan Department of Community Health said that 26 cases were linked to the outbreak, and then on Sept. 28, Illinois announced six more cases matching the Michigan outbreak strain.
As of Oct. 8, Michigan officials had counted 36 cases, and Canadian officials were investigating two cases in southern Ontario that may be connected. "Working with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, we were able to determine a common source at multiple establishments in Michigan, Illinois and possibly Ontario," a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health said in a statement.
Aunt Mid's voluntarily suspended selling Iceberg lettuce and contracted with an outside laboratory to conduct independent tests of it products and facility upon learning of the illnesses.
All tests came back negative for the pathogen, as did the 50 additional samples taken by the Michigan Department of Agriculture, according to Aunt Mid's President Dominic Riggio.
The company has "freely and graciously extended to the various departments of the state of Michigan access to its processing facility and has provided additional product samples for testing by those departments," said an Oct. 4 statement posted on the company's web site.
But Mr. Riggio said that he has not gotten the same response from state outbreak investigators. The company asked Michigan authorities to share the case studies that were used to confirm the state's charge that Aunt Mid's lettuce was responsible for the outbreak.
"We've requested the case studies for a week but were officially denied," he said. "But the case studies are the whole basis of why they named us at all. We want to see that."
Mr. Riggio said that tracing the product forward can help companies pinpoint whether its product could have been served to a patron who later became ill. By looking at some records shared by its distributors, he said that the trace- forward in this outbreak points to products derived from multiple lots, multiple production runs and multiple growing fields.
"It's highly unlikely this would have been lettuce from us," Mr. Riggio said, adding that the illness onset dates do not match the shipment dates. Now Aunt Mid's is preparing to resume shipping shredded lettuce, and Mr. Riggio said that products will undergo "extensive testing" prior to loading and during processing. The company plans to conduct more frequent testing and require "more documentation prior to loading," he said.
William Marler, an attorney with MarlerClark LLP, said that he was "stunned" to hear Aunt Mid's was not accepting responsibility for the illnesses. He said that tests clearing product at the facility do not mean the earlier product was clean.
"The link to Aunt Mid's is clear, and so is their responsibility to the consumer - to reveal where the tainted lettuce originated, so that testing can pinpoint the source and it can be stopped," Mr. Marler said in his blog.
According to Aunt Mid's, food safety is a top priority and the firm employs a state-of-the-art, HACCP-certified processing facility and houses its own laboratory managed by a quality-assurance-and-control team.
The company said that it has received superior ratings by its third-party food-safety auditor, AIB International.
On Sept. 26, Michigan officials named Detroit-based Aunt Mid's Produce Co. as the wholesaler responsible for selling bagged, industrial-sized packages of Iceberg lettuce that were served in restaurants and institutions, including colleges and a jail, where people got sick.
At the time, the Michigan Department of Community Health said that 26 cases were linked to the outbreak, and then on Sept. 28, Illinois announced six more cases matching the Michigan outbreak strain.
As of Oct. 8, Michigan officials had counted 36 cases, and Canadian officials were investigating two cases in southern Ontario that may be connected. "Working with the Michigan Department of Agriculture, we were able to determine a common source at multiple establishments in Michigan, Illinois and possibly Ontario," a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Community Health said in a statement.
Aunt Mid's voluntarily suspended selling Iceberg lettuce and contracted with an outside laboratory to conduct independent tests of it products and facility upon learning of the illnesses.
All tests came back negative for the pathogen, as did the 50 additional samples taken by the Michigan Department of Agriculture, according to Aunt Mid's President Dominic Riggio.
The company has "freely and graciously extended to the various departments of the state of Michigan access to its processing facility and has provided additional product samples for testing by those departments," said an Oct. 4 statement posted on the company's web site.
But Mr. Riggio said that he has not gotten the same response from state outbreak investigators. The company asked Michigan authorities to share the case studies that were used to confirm the state's charge that Aunt Mid's lettuce was responsible for the outbreak.
"We've requested the case studies for a week but were officially denied," he said. "But the case studies are the whole basis of why they named us at all. We want to see that."
Mr. Riggio said that tracing the product forward can help companies pinpoint whether its product could have been served to a patron who later became ill. By looking at some records shared by its distributors, he said that the trace- forward in this outbreak points to products derived from multiple lots, multiple production runs and multiple growing fields.
"It's highly unlikely this would have been lettuce from us," Mr. Riggio said, adding that the illness onset dates do not match the shipment dates. Now Aunt Mid's is preparing to resume shipping shredded lettuce, and Mr. Riggio said that products will undergo "extensive testing" prior to loading and during processing. The company plans to conduct more frequent testing and require "more documentation prior to loading," he said.
William Marler, an attorney with MarlerClark LLP, said that he was "stunned" to hear Aunt Mid's was not accepting responsibility for the illnesses. He said that tests clearing product at the facility do not mean the earlier product was clean.
"The link to Aunt Mid's is clear, and so is their responsibility to the consumer - to reveal where the tainted lettuce originated, so that testing can pinpoint the source and it can be stopped," Mr. Marler said in his blog.
According to Aunt Mid's, food safety is a top priority and the firm employs a state-of-the-art, HACCP-certified processing facility and houses its own laboratory managed by a quality-assurance-and-control team.
The company said that it has received superior ratings by its third-party food-safety auditor, AIB International.
