Produce industry braces for CDC to identify Salmonella outbreak source
Produce industry braces for CDC to identify Salmonella outbreak source
WASHINGTON -- News that a new Salmonella outbreak is no longer a threat to consumers is little consolation to a produce industry struggling to recover from the crippling e. coli outbreak tied to fresh spinach.
Federal officials have yet to announce the food vehicle that sickened more than 170 people in 19 states with a strain of Salmonella Typhimurium since Sept. 1, but sources say that preliminary information from the two-week-long investigation points to lettuce and tomatoes as possible sources.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, which is taking the lead in the investigation, is feverishly working to identify a possible food source with the help of five states with the most outbreak-related cases: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
"As of now, we have yet to narrow it down to any food commodity," CDC spokesperson Lola Russell said in a Nov. 1 statement. The CDC said that the outbreak appears to be over and that the source would have been consumed or discarded a month ago. Of the patients in 19 states that were sickened, about 60 percent were women and 14 were hospitalized, said CDC. About 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported to health officials each year.
But while federal officials have yet to name foods, state health officials are identifying tomatoes and lettuce as the most likely sources of the multi-state Salmonella outbreak. Narrowing it down to any one of those commodities is complicated by the fact that they are often eaten together, said one source.
New Hampshire's 12 cases of Salmonella poisoning associated with the current outbreak appear to point the finger at tomatoes and possibly lettuce, said a New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services spokesperson. Patients reported eating a mix of these items in restaurants and at home, she said.
The Food & Drug Administration said that epidemiological investigations take time and preliminary suspects emerge, but FDA is not at the point where it can identify a specific food item, said a spokesperson for the FDA. Once the food source is identified, FDA will begin a traceback, which may take weeks to complete compared to the fast-paced spinach probe. That investigation relied on bagged salad products branded with bar codes and production information to lay the paper trail.
The good news is that the industry is not being told to take produce off the shelf at this time because the risk appears to have passed, said Kathy Means of the Produce Marketing Association. But if it is a produce item, "it's another blast at consumer confidence," she said.
This outbreak will serve as a "strong reinforcement" that the produce industry needs to build a food-safety system that restores confidence for the buyer and the consumer, she said. The industry will need to brace itself for media reports if the food source is identified as fresh produce.
Both tomatoes and lettuce have been on the short list of fresh produce items that have caused an increasing number of foodborne outbreaks in recent years. In 2004, more than 500 people in the United States and Canada were stricken with multiple Salmonella strains that were traced to pre-sliced Roma tomatoes sold at Sheetz gas stations. Packers and farms in two states were investigated, but the source was never identified. In May, the produce industry issued commodity-specific guidelines to focus attention on the safe handling of tomatoes.
Some tomato producers are hearing from concerned East Coast buyers, but there is little panic in the tomato industry, said Carolyn Hughes of the California Tomato Commission, who said that the commission has pushed for tougher enforcement of Good Agricultural Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices in recent years and this year supported legislation to make GAPs mandatory. The legislation was vetoed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was ironic, said Ms. Hughes, because the spinach outbreak has prompted calls to do just that across the produce industry.
Other states reporting cases of Salmonella linked to the outbreak are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington.
A health official from North Carolina, a state with two salmonellosis cases, said that one of the two patients interviewed for a health survey did not recall eating any produce before becoming ill. A Pennsylvania health official said that the state has yet to identify a common food source among its five cases.
Federal officials have yet to announce the food vehicle that sickened more than 170 people in 19 states with a strain of Salmonella Typhimurium since Sept. 1, but sources say that preliminary information from the two-week-long investigation points to lettuce and tomatoes as possible sources.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, which is taking the lead in the investigation, is feverishly working to identify a possible food source with the help of five states with the most outbreak-related cases: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire.
"As of now, we have yet to narrow it down to any food commodity," CDC spokesperson Lola Russell said in a Nov. 1 statement. The CDC said that the outbreak appears to be over and that the source would have been consumed or discarded a month ago. Of the patients in 19 states that were sickened, about 60 percent were women and 14 were hospitalized, said CDC. About 40,000 cases of salmonellosis are reported to health officials each year.
But while federal officials have yet to name foods, state health officials are identifying tomatoes and lettuce as the most likely sources of the multi-state Salmonella outbreak. Narrowing it down to any one of those commodities is complicated by the fact that they are often eaten together, said one source.
New Hampshire's 12 cases of Salmonella poisoning associated with the current outbreak appear to point the finger at tomatoes and possibly lettuce, said a New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services spokesperson. Patients reported eating a mix of these items in restaurants and at home, she said.
The Food & Drug Administration said that epidemiological investigations take time and preliminary suspects emerge, but FDA is not at the point where it can identify a specific food item, said a spokesperson for the FDA. Once the food source is identified, FDA will begin a traceback, which may take weeks to complete compared to the fast-paced spinach probe. That investigation relied on bagged salad products branded with bar codes and production information to lay the paper trail.
The good news is that the industry is not being told to take produce off the shelf at this time because the risk appears to have passed, said Kathy Means of the Produce Marketing Association. But if it is a produce item, "it's another blast at consumer confidence," she said.
This outbreak will serve as a "strong reinforcement" that the produce industry needs to build a food-safety system that restores confidence for the buyer and the consumer, she said. The industry will need to brace itself for media reports if the food source is identified as fresh produce.
Both tomatoes and lettuce have been on the short list of fresh produce items that have caused an increasing number of foodborne outbreaks in recent years. In 2004, more than 500 people in the United States and Canada were stricken with multiple Salmonella strains that were traced to pre-sliced Roma tomatoes sold at Sheetz gas stations. Packers and farms in two states were investigated, but the source was never identified. In May, the produce industry issued commodity-specific guidelines to focus attention on the safe handling of tomatoes.
Some tomato producers are hearing from concerned East Coast buyers, but there is little panic in the tomato industry, said Carolyn Hughes of the California Tomato Commission, who said that the commission has pushed for tougher enforcement of Good Agricultural Practices and Good Manufacturing Practices in recent years and this year supported legislation to make GAPs mandatory. The legislation was vetoed by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, which was ironic, said Ms. Hughes, because the spinach outbreak has prompted calls to do just that across the produce industry.
Other states reporting cases of Salmonella linked to the outbreak are Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington.
A health official from North Carolina, a state with two salmonellosis cases, said that one of the two patients interviewed for a health survey did not recall eating any produce before becoming ill. A Pennsylvania health official said that the state has yet to identify a common food source among its five cases.
