Food Safety

CWA Food Safety Report
January 2010

Five Crowns Marketing – Voluntary Cantaloupe Recall
11/20/2009 from FDA
Five Crowns Marketing, Brawley, CA issued a voluntary recall of cantaloupes packed under the Majesty label because of a potential health risk due to possible contamination of Salmonelle. The recall came after a lab analysis on a lot of cantaloupes packed on November 4th, resulted in a confirmed positive for Salmonella. No illnesses have been reported to date.

Feinstein Introduces Food Safety Bill
12/01/2009 from Western Growers
California Senator, Dianne Feinstein, introduced the Processed Food Safety Act, which prohibits the sale of any food that has not been certified to be pathogen free by amending the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
The bill would require facilities to apply pathogen reduction treatments to each food item a facility manufactures, processes, packages or holds for consumption. If this bill were to pass out of Congress and be signed into law, facilities would have to certify to the Department of Health and Human Services that each food item leaving that facility contains no verifiable pathogens (in essence mandating finished product testing) or that each food item has received pathogen reduction treatments.

FDA Expands Presence Outside U.S.
12/15/2009 from Western Growers
As part of its continuing effort to strengthen food and medical product safety in this country by working with its regulatory partners overseas, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the opening of its Mexico City post. This is the Agency’s third post in Latin America and its tenth international post in the past 13 months. To date, the FDA has opened 10 international posts, including posts in China, India, Europe, and Latin America, along with its USA-based staff. The other posts in the Latin America office are located in Santiago, Chile, and at the FDA’s Latin American Office headquarters in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Staff assigned to the FDA’s Mexico City post will work with their counterparts in the Mexican government to harmonize regulations and guidance standards and to work on other collaborative initiatives. These collaborations will include, for example, information-sharing on the respective regulatory systems and joint workshops on the safety of food and medical products. Agencies in both governments also will make efforts to find opportunities for joint training on foodborne illnesses and the oversight of food traded internationally.

Willamette Shelling Recalls Shelled Hazelnuts Because of Possible Health Risk
12/17/2009 from FDA
Willamette Shelling of Newberg, OR recalled 114,350 lbs. of shelled hazelnuts, because of the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. After product sampling, Salmonella was found on one production lot. To ensure consumer safety, Willamette Shelling decided to recall all shelled hazelnuts processed at its facility from October 12th through November 25th.

Online Tool for Proposing Changes to the CA Leafy Greens Metrics
12/23/2009 from Western Growers
“CA Leafy Greens Metrics” or Commodity Specific Food Safety Guidelines for the Production and Harvest of Lettuce and Leafy Greens (CSFSG) are currently used by members of the CA Leafy Green Products Handler Marketing Agreement (LGMA). Any proposed changes to these guidelines and even comments may now be submitted on-line.
A new link has been recently added to the Western Growers’ Science & Technology pages. The link “Propose Changes to CA GAPs” will take you to Western Growers’ CA “wiki” page aimed at enhancing access, increasing transparency and facilitating discussion of the CA Leafy Green Metrics. The “wiki” site is available to any entity including growers, handlers, auditors, any state, federal, or local, regulatory agency, academia, consumer and/or advocacy group, and the general public.

CWA Food Safety Report - July 2009

LGMA News
A proponent group, including the United Fresh Produce Association, Produce Marketing Association, Georgia Fresh Vegetable Association, Georgia Farm Bureau, Texas Vegetable Association, Arizona Farm Bureau, Leafy Greens Council, California Farm Bureau, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, Grower-Shipper Association of Central California and Western Growers sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) formally requesting the agency begin the process necessary to establish a national marketing agreement for leafy greens (NLGMA). The group also unveiled its website, HYPERLINK "http://www.nlgma.org" www.nlgma.org, aimed to inform all interested parties about the NLGMA.

New FDA chief plans new steps to prevent tainted produce
6/16/2009 from LA Times
Calling it “a critical time” for food safety, the Food and Drug Administration’s new chief said she plans to strengthen steps to prevent contamination of fresh fruit and vegetables. Dr. Margaret Hamburg said the FDA must set and enforce tougher standards for the riskiest products. Hamburg arrived three weeks ago vowing to restore FDA’s credibility by focusing on science-based decisions that shore up public health. The FDA has asked Congress for a nearly 20 percent funding increase and new industry user fees to pay for more inspections. Hamburg said there are too many food suppliers here and around the world for the FDA to physically inspect every one. Her goal is to focus on the riskiest foods and implement prevention strategies – what scientists call risk-based controls – to target the spots along the farm-to-store chain were contamination can occur.

Food Safety Portal to Provide Guidance for Industry
06/16/2009
The registry, which was designed for companies that register with the FDA under the 2002 Bioterrorism Act is an online communication system for food marketers to let the FDA know when food companies have had an incident related to food safety. The portal is not intended for food recalls, which are handled separately. The guidance, published June 11th in the Federal Register will help food companies understand how to report food products that could make consumers ill. The online portal should open September 8, 2009.

Survey Finds Fewer Than 20% Trust Food Safety
6/24/2009
According a survey conducted by IBM, fewer than 20% of adult grocery shoppers indicate that they trust food companies to develop and sell food products that are safe and healthy.
IBM's businesses include providing solutions for tracing food through the supply chain. Results of the survey, fielded by Survey Sampling International, are based on responses from 1,000 randomly selected adults from the country's 10 largest cities (100 responses per city) who grocery shop at least once per month. The sample was drawn from SSI's managed online panels. The results have a 3.1-point margin of error overall (95% confidence level). IBM was not identified as the study's sponsor.
Slightly more than half (55%) of respondents said that they trust food manufacturers when handling a recall precipitated by possible contamination of a product -- a "marked" decrease (from 64%) in their level of trust over the past two years, when the previous study was done, according to IBM.
However, nearly three-quarters (72%) said they trust the store where they buy groceries to properly handle food product contamination recalls.
Over the past two years, 60% of consumers say that they are increasingly concerned about the safety of food products they purchase.
Well over half (57%) report that they have stopped purchasing certain foods for at least a short time within the past two years due to safety considerations, and 49% say they would be unwilling to purchase a food product again that had been recalled due to contamination.
More than two-thirds (83%) were able to name a food product that was recalled in the past two years, with peanut butter having by far the highest recognition (46%). Spinach came in a distant second, with only 15% awareness.
Also, 63% say they have become more knowledgeable about the contents of food they buy, 77% say they want more information about the content of the food products they purchase, and 76% say they would like more information about its origin.

Nearly three-quarters (74%) say they are willing to dig deeper and seek more data about how food products are grown, processed and manufactured. Consumers also said they are spending more time reading food labels to know which ingredients were used and questioning supermarkets and product manufacturers about product detail, and that they are paying closer attention to expiration dates and doing more in-depth background checks on specific food brands and their origin.
Finally, the survey found that 63% of respondents report having changed their grocery shopping behavior within the past two years because they wanted better value for their money, 45% because they wanted access to fresher foods, and 43% because they wanted access to better-quality foods.

 

 

 

CWA Food Safety Report - May 2009

LGMA News
03/24/2009

While a national debate on how to improve the safety of the U.S. food supply continues, CA Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was honored by the CA Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement for his role in developing an innovative food safety program. Governor Schwarzenegger accepted the “Golden Checkmark” award for his role in establishing the CA LGMA which includes mandatory government inspection of farms. The award was presented as part of the state’s celebration of Ag Day at the Capitol in Sacramento. CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura, LGMA Board Chairman Joe Pezzini and LGMA CEO Scott Horsfall were on hand for the presentation.

FDA Alerts the Public to Uncle Chen and Lian How Brand Dry Spice Product Recall
04/02/2009 from www.fda.gov
FDA alerted the public to a voluntary recall by Union International Food Company (Union City, CA) of the company’s dry spice products. The recall was based on an investigation of an ongoing foodborne illness outbreak of Salmonella Rissen. White and black pepper products from the company’s Union City facility in the Bay Area were associated with an outbreak that sickened 42 people in four states (CA, NV, OR, WA), with most of the reported cases (33) in California.

Voluntary Recall of Pistachio Kernel Products
04/03/2009
Setton International Foods, Inc. voluntarily recalled several of its roasted shelled pistachio nut products listed below that contain pistachios manufactured by Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc. The voluntary recall announcement of specific lots of bulk roasted shelled and bulk roasted in shell pistachios came due to potential contamination with the Salmonella organism. This voluntary recall was not related to the recent recalls associated with peanuts or peanut butter. Overall, the voluntary recall involved approximately 1 million pounds of product.

Raw Alfalfa Spouts Linked to Salmonella Contamination
4/26/2009
FDA and CDC recommended that consumers not eat raw alfalfa sprouts, including sprout blends containing alfalfa sprouts until further notice as the product had been linked to Salmonella serotype Saintpaul contamination. Other types of spouts have not been implicated at this time. The investigation indicates that the problem may be linked to contamination of seeds for alfalfa sprouts. Because suspect lots of seeds may be sold around the country and may account for a large proportion of the alfalfa seeds currently being used by sprout growers, and cases of illness are spread across multiple states, FDA and CDC issued this general advisory. FDA will work with the alfalfa sprout industry to help identify which seeds and alfalfa spouts are not connected with this contamination, so that the advisory can be changed as quickly as possible.

CWA Food Safety Report - March 2009

FDA: Investigation Update - Peanut Product – Salmonella Typhimurium
03/05/2009 from www.fda.gov
FDA has evidence to support classifying the recall of product distributed from the PCA Plainview, Texas facility as a Class 1 Recall (a situation in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death).  This determination was based upon inspectional findings, epidemiological data, internal test results from PCA that are positive for salmonella, test results from consumer samples that match the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium, and FDA positive samples of finished product (post-processed peanut meal collected at the PCA Texas facility)  that match the outbreak strain.  The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) also collected a sample of peanut meal from the same lot collected by FDA at the PCA Texas facility, and has detected the outbreak strain of Salmonella Typhimurium.

On February 20, PCA issued a statement indicating it had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and that it was no longer able to communicate with customers regarding recalled products.  As a result, FDA and officials from the State of Texas DSHS are now coordinating their efforts to notify companies that received product from PCA’s Plainview, TX facility from January 1, 2007 forward.  

PCA suspended operation of its Plainview, TX facility on February 10 at the request of the Texas DSHS, after several conditions that posed human health risk were discovered.  On February 12, the State of Texas issued an emergency order directing PCA to cease the manufacture and distribution of all food products at the facility and issued a mandatory recall order requiring PCA to recall all products manufactured at the plant.

Unlike the PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia, which principally manufactured peanut butter and peanut paste, the PCA Texas facility principally blanched, split, granulated and roasted peanuts for distribution to various businesses.  The Texas facility's activities included the production and distribution of peanut meal, a byproduct of the peanut granulation process used to make peanut butter and peanut paste.  The Texas DSHS is currently notifying all first-level customers of PCA Texas products from January 1, 2007 forward that all products are subject to recall.  FDA will audit 100 percent of those PCA customers to facilitate the removal of product from the marketplace.

This is an ingredient-driven outbreak; that is, potentially contaminated ingredients affected many different products that were distributed through various channels and consumed in various settings. The recalled products made by PCA, such as peanut butter and peanut paste, are common ingredients in cookies, crackers, cereal, candy, ice cream, pet treats, and other foods. Consumers are advised to discard and not eat products that have been recalled. To help consumers identify affected products, FDA has initiated a HYPERLINK "http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm" \o "http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm" searchable database of recalled products that is updated daily or as additional recalls are identified. To date, more than 2,100 products in 17 categories have been voluntarily recalled by more than 200 companies, and the list continues to grow.

In January, the recall list was expanded to include some pet-food products that contain peanut paste made by PCA. Salmonella can affect animals, and humans who handle contaminated pet-food products also are at risk. It is important for people to wash their hands – and to make sure children wash their hands – with hot water and soap before and, especially, after handling pet-food products and utensils.

The large number of products and brands recalled already, and the large quantities of some products recalled, makes this one of the largest food recalls ever in the United States.

Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 H.R. 875
This bill was introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) on February 4, 2009. This bill would establish a Food Safety Administration within the Department of Health and Human Services (where the FDA currently resides). This would transfer all food safety duties from the FDA to the new agency and then rename the FDA the "Federal Drug and Device Administration."

The bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on 2/4, and in addition to the Committee on Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.