A year after the E. coli outbreak, ag industry chastened and changed

One year ago today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration delivered a body blow to the Salinas Valley agriculture industry when it announced an unprecedented, blanket warning against eating any fresh, bagged spinach. The FDA advisory came in response to a multi-state outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that killed at least three people and sickened more than 200.

In the year since that warning, which lasted two weeks, a chastened ag industry has made major changes in how it handles its leafy greens products. "There were many days when I felt Rome was burning around us," said Joe Pezzini, vice president of operations for Ocean Mist Farms in Castroville, who, in his role as chairman of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, became the face of Salinas Valley agriculture during the outbreak.

Pezzini made his remarks Thursday at a luncheon honoring him for outstanding contributions to Monterey County agriculture, the chief economic engine of the county. The outbreak left "the salad bowl of the world" with a tarnished reputation, a $77 million loss to its spinach crop and a drop in bagged salad sales, which were down by $10.5 million, according to the 2006 Monterey County Crop Report.

Some estimates place the actual losses at greater than $100 million, and the figures are not yet in for 2007.

The past year has seen the industry strive to regain consumer confidence by strengthening its attempts to prevent potentially fatal bacterial contamination of salad greens. But those efforts have had a mixed reception, with some legislators, including state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, calling for government inspections of leafy greens handlers while environmentalists decry new growing practices that they say are destroying years of ecological advances in the ag industry.

A large element of the problem lies in scientists' and investigators' inability to say with certainty how leafy greens become contaminated. Public health investigators fairly quickly traced last year's outbreak back to contaminated Dole-brand fresh spinach, processed and bagged at Natural Selection Foods LLC in San Juan Bautista, but pinpointing the field where the tainted greens were grown became a months-long challenge.

Not until March did state and federal health officials issue a report in which they said they believed the deadly spinach had come from a farm near Paicines in San Benito County, and that contamination occurred either because wild pigs trampled cow feces through the spinach field or because the field had been irrigated with E. coli-infested water. They were unable to be more specific, they said.

The 2006 outbreak was the most severe ever linked to salad products, but since 1995, the Salinas Valley has been connected to nine of 20 outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 associated with leafy greens. In most cases, the precise source of contamination has proved elusive, with scientists eventually giving their "best guess."

Because of uncertainty about how E. coli gets onto produce, why it's so difficult to remove and the lack of a "kill step" that would eliminate dangerous bacteria from salad greens, growers and handlers find themselves operating under "best guess" practices as they try to reduce, if not eradicate, contamination.

James Bogart, president of the Grower-Shipper Association, was in Washington, D.C., on Thursday lobbying for money for food-safety research. Bogart called the past year "challenging, sometimes frustrating, and exhilarating," and said the leafy greens industry's new food safety rules and crisis-management planning have left it better prepared to handle any future outbreak. "We've made progress, but we still have a way to go," he said.

The centerpiece of the industry's response to the outbreak is the California Leafy Green Product Handlers Marketing Agreement. Leafy greens handlers don't have to sign on to the agreement, but most have, finding they will have no market for their product if they don't, according to industry officials.

The marketing agreement specifies a variety of field conditions for growers and outlines a series of tests handlers must make to water, soil and crops throughout the growing, harvesting and processing phases. Those who join the pact must agree to allow state inspectors to examine their practices and records.
Environmental protections cut

In another effort to resolve the problem of contamination, produce industry officials have pumped millions of dollars into establishing a new food safety research center at the University of California, Davis, where scientists are charged with discovering exactly how E. coli gets onto leafy greens.

But existing knowledge gaps have raised concerns with environmental groups, who say rules imposed by buyers and shippers of leafy greens that go above and beyond the marketing agreement are causing environmental degradation in the Salinas Valley.

A survey by the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County released last month shows the new food safety rules "appear to be in conflict with management practices intended to improve water quality and enhance natural habitat."

About 600 growers in Monterey, San Benito, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and San Luis Obispo counties were surveyed.

More than 30 percent of leafy greens growers said their buyers, auditors or others suggested they remove non-crop vegetation, such as grassy filters or buffer strips, which protect waterways and help remove soil particles and chemicals from runoff. More than 30 percent also said they had removed such vegetation.

Growers are "caught in the middle between these competing priorities and in many cases are being put in a position of having to choose between being able to sell their crops or protect the environment," the report says.

Some environmental protection groups say the focus on controlling contamination has been wrongly placed on fields when it should be on salad processing plants. Kira Pascoe, food safety coordinator for the Community Alliance of Family Farms, said combining leafy greens from several farms in common washing and bagging systems means contamination can spread quickly to large quantities of raw product in just one processing plant.

"Centralized washing and packing from different farms raises the risk" of spreading contamination, Pascoe said.
' ... the best thing we can do'

In the case of last year's outbreak, authorities with the California Department of Health Services and FDA said their findings led them to conclude the contamination probably occurred in a field leased by Mission Organics from Paicines Ranch either during or just before harvest. But, they said, the bacteria probably were spread to other spinach during bagging and processing at Natural Selection Foods LLC's south processing plant in San Juan Bautista.

Samantha Cabaluna, spokeswoman for Natural Selection Foods, said the past year has presented tremendous challenges for the company, which completely overhauled its food safety program.

It now tests all raw and processed leafy greens for contamination and holds the produce while awaiting results.

"At Natural Selection Foods, we've made the decision that testing is an important part of our program, and we believe we've done thorough assessments of our programs," Cabaluna said. "We think this is the best thing we can do."

Natural Selection, which was in the process of buying the plant where the contaminated spinach was processed from Pride of San Juan, backed out of the sale and shuttered the plant in a retrenching after the outbreak.

Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney representing 93 people sickened in the outbreak, said 41 cases and three death suits have so far been settled by Dole Fresh Vegetables, Natural Selection Foods and Mission Organics.

Thirty-eight cases involving people who have severe complications from their illnesses are still unresolved, Marler said. Despite aggressive efforts by salad companies to improve food safety, "You can't guarantee that the product doesn't have bacteria on it," he said.


Source: thecalifornian.com

Publication date: 9/17/2007

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