Celery

  • Texas fresh-cut plant shut after links to 5 listeria deaths in celery

    Posted: October 21st, 2010 - 8:24am by Doug Powell

    Sometime in Jan. 2010, someone in Texas got really sick with listeria.

    By mid-May, 2010, five were sick and two were dead – all from the same strain of listeria. By Oct. 20, 2010, five were sick and five had died from the same strain of listeria. Most of the listeriosis patients were elderly with serious underlying health problems, and many were hospitalized before and during the onset of their infection.

    Health types said six of the 10 cases were conclusively linked to chopped celery sold by Sangar Fresh Cut Produce of San Antonio, so yesterday, the Texas Department of State Health Services ordered Sangar to stop processing food and recall all products shipped from the plant since January. The order was issued after laboratory tests of chopped celery from the plant indicated the presence of Listeria monocytogenes.

    Sangar President Kenneth Sanquist Jr. took issue with the state, adding in a statement,

    “The state's claim that some of our produce now fails to meet health standards directly contradicts independent testing that was conducted on the same products. This independent testing shows our produce to be absolutely safe, and we are aggressively fighting the state's erroneous findings.”

    DSHS inspectors say that in the Sanger plant, they found a condensation leak above a food product area, soil on a preparation table and hand washing issues.

    The recalled products – primarily cut fresh produce in sealed packages – were distributed to restaurants and institutional entities, such as hospitals and schools, and are not believed to be sold in grocery stores.

    For a glimpse of the Sanger plant, see the video below from Aug. 13, 2010, when Sanquist told KENS5 TV in San Antonio there should be tougher standards in the fresh-cut industry, adding,

    "All we're saying is everyone should have that standard. There is an entire process that we have to follow on a daily basis, if you miss a step or two steps or try to take a short cut...children could get very sick."

    Sanquist said many businesses only require their produce company have a recall program in place and that's simply not enough prevention.
     

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    Listeria  |  0 Comments
    Celery, fresh-cut, Listeria, sanger, Texas
  • Dirty dozen food warnings are simplistic and suck

    Posted: December 18th, 2009 - 1:38pm by Doug Powell

    It’s end-of-year, so lists are big, and I’m fond of my Top-5 Records label list.

    But some are just dumb, and it’s good to see the science types in New Zealand calling out some BS.

    The Dominion Post reports tomorrow that toxicologists have accused a food safety campaigner of a lack of understanding after she advised people to eat organic celery to avoid pesticides.

    Alison White has ranked celery at the top of a list of foods likely to contain pesticide residue, but scientists say that does not mean indulging in the vegetable will cause any harm.

    Ms White, who is a researcher and co-convenor of the Safe Food Campaign, said consumers wanted information about whether their food contained pesticide residues.

    Canterbury University toxicology professor Ian Shaw said Ms White's table, which she published on the group's website, displayed "naughtiness" in referencing research about cancer risks among people who sprayed vegetables, not those who ate them.

    Ms White's comments also showed she did not understand the difference between how dangerous a chemical was, and the actual chance or risk of it causing any harm.

    The Food Safety Authority's principal toxicology adviser, John Reeve, dismissed Ms White's suggestion that pesticide residues could be making our food unsafe.

    "Alison White and her colleagues have no expertise in toxicology and don't understand the science."

    Dr Reeve said pesticide limits were determined by how much of a chemical growers needed for it to work.

    That limit was hundreds of times lower than the levels that would have any impact on human health, he said.

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    Food Safety Policy, Pesticides, Raw Food  |  0 Comments
    Celery, Fruit, Nzfsa, Toxicology, Vegetables