Tomatoes No Cash Crop

                                     


Tomato growers trying to recoup their massive lost profits from an ultimately inaccurate Salmonella source diagnosis by the FDA lost their case today; food safety warnings were NOT ruled to be government takings and therefore the FDA is not responsible for the dramatic dip in tomato sales in 2008 (due to the FDA's accusation that tomatoes were to blame. It turned out it was peppers.)

As near to impossible as it is to pinpoint the source of food borne illness, today's ruling makes it clear that at least as far as the FDA's work is concerned, people matter more than profits. Today's ruling protects the FDA's legitimate attempts to investigate food borne illness and its origins, as well as squashing any tomato grower's illusions of grandeur.

Maya Missaghi, J.D. expected January 2015, William Mitchell College of Law
photo credit: licensing.pixels.com

And salad too -- more recalls

Big day for recalls, just before the Fourth of July.  This time it's sprouts, lettuce, and sprouts.  Here are the details:

Banner Mountain Sprouts in California is voluntarily recalling some of its organic products because of possible contamination with salmonella.

Dole Fresh Vegetables is recalling about a thousand bags of bagged greens for possible contamination with Listeria monocytogenes.   The salads were distributed in six U.S. states (Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia).

Leasa Industries Co., Inc., is recalling alfalfa sprouts because of possible contamination with salmonella.  While the recall notice does not quite specifically say so, this recall seems to be limited to Florida.

So that's two salmonellas and a Listeria all in green leafy things.  I know sprouts are grown in conditions ideal for pathogen growth, but how does the Salmonella get in there in the first place?  Salmonella "are microscopic living creatures that pass from the feces of people or animals to other people or other animals," according to the USDA.  So again, my questoin, how does Salmonella get from the feces to the sprouts in the first place?  This simply should not be happening.

Salmonella in dog treats?

The FDA is investigating the extent and types of salmonella in dog treats.  According to a Memorandum, dated October 24, 2011, during 2012 FDA will be collecting samples of dry dog treats -- um, cookies, milk bones, and all those chew sticks Maddie and Teva like so much.  This does not seem to be in response to any recent threat.

Nevertheless, if dog treats are contaminated with salmonella, dogs can get sick and so can their humans.  It's a good reminder to always wash hands after handling dog food (as well as human food).

Hat tip to Food Safety News.  I'm just reposting to get going on this blog.

Irradiation of Fresh Produce

I am a huge fan of Bill Marler. I get a lot of food safety information from his blog and related websites.  Bill sees people suffering the worst possible effects of having eaten poisonous foods.  So if I disagree with something Bill says, don't ever read any disrespect into that disagreement.

From MarlerBlog:

Less irradiation can kill more bugs on leafy greens
Posted by Bill Marler on December 07, 2010

ScienceDaily reports in “Killing Salmonella and E. Coli on Fresh Produce With Half the Normal Food-Irradiation Levels” that a team of Texas A&M researchers has developed a way to cut by as much as half the amount of irradiation needed to kill 99.999 percent of salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens on fresh produce. . . .

(Isn't this blogging stuff cool? Science Daily publishes an article based on a press release from Texas A&M University. Bill Marler blogs about the Science Daily article. And I blog about Bill Marler blogging about the Science Daily article.)

I suppose it's a relief that it doesn't take much radiation to kill salmonella and e. coli on produce.  But I think this is the wrong direction.  These are pathogens that originate in animals.  They shouldn't be on the produce in the first place.  It is not OK that they are there.  We've been seeing more of this kind of contamination of produce lately.  Is it because our operations are so big we can't keep track of where the animals are? Are harvesting practices so out of control that employees don't clean their hands? Where are these poop bacteria coming from? It's simply NOT a given that food must be contaminated.  We're doing something wrong.

So we keep turning to more and more technology to solve problems that are created by technology in the first place.