Food Safety in the Fruit and Vegetable Sector

At the end of August, 2006, spinach tainted with Escherichia coliform bacteria (E.coli) was shipped from California to locations across the US and Canada. Before the product was removed from the shelves, however, nearly 200 people became sick and three people died as a result of the contamination. Less than two weeks later, green leaf lettuce from the same growing area as the spinach was recalled when it was discovered that water used to irrigate the lettuce may have been contaminated with E.coli. Analysis afterwards indicated that no such contamination occurred. Nevertheless, these recent outbreaks and the rapidity in which the (potentially) infected produce spread throughout the supply chain suggest there are some major problems in our food system.

What is E.coli?
The suspected culprit in both situations was E.coli, a highly contagious bacterium that live in the intestines of warm blooded animals such as humans, cows and pigs. In the case of the spinach outbreak, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suspect that it originated from grazing dear or from irrigation water contaminated with cattle feces. The bacterium can also be transmitted via other vectors, including agricultural workers. This is perhaps the most easily prevented mode of transmission, remedied by improving field sanitation practices and providing restrooms and adequate hand washing facilities. In general, however, the majority of widespread outbreaks of E.coli tend to be associated with the consumption of contaminated drinking water and animal products such as ground beef.

Global sourcing and associated food safety risks
Far from being an anomaly, problems relating to food safety and foodborne illness are fairly common. In fact, the CDC estimates that 76 million Americans get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 people die from foodborne illnesses each year. What is also emerging from these cases is that the centralized system of production and distribution is helping to spread potential contaminates throughout the chain rather quickly. This is because lettuce picked in California on Monday can be bagged and on the retail shelves as early as Tuesday and Wednesday throughout North America. Unlike the meat and poultry industry, there is no FDA or regulatory program in place to verify the safety of fruits and vegetables. Without the necessary safety checks and precautions, there is therefore no guarantee that this food is actually safe to eat or free from harmful materials or pathogens. Such risks are further compounded when considering the fact that the average food supply chain now includes product from a wide variety of farms and locations. If food safety cannot be guaranteed for domestically produced fruits and vegetables, what sort of claims can be made about imported produce?

To reduce the number of foodborne illnesses, as well as the severity of future outbreaks from fruits and vegetables, more systematic precautions need to be taken. These include improving field conditions, sampling and monitoring programs throughout the supply chain—not just for the biggest producers or those producing on domestic soil, but for international suppliers as well. Precautions must also consist of enhanced security measures at the field and packing level, which is particularly critical given the susceptibility of food supply chains to possible acts of bioterrorism and product tampering. Unless the appropriate regulatory these steps are taken, the health and safety of consumers continues to be at great risk.

SOURCES:
National Center for Infectious Diseases: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC. United States Department of Health. Retrieved October 20, 2006 from http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/diseases/food/index.htm.

Pollan, M. (2006. October 15). The Way We Live Now: The Vegetable Industrial Complex. The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2006 from http://www.nytimes.com/

E. coli exposes weakness in the food chain. (2006, October 10). CTV News. Retrieved October 20, 2006 from http://www.ctv.ca