Australian hepatitis A outbreak still linked to semi-dried tomatoes
Hepatitis A is one of the few causes of foodborne illness that only cycles through humans – and their poop.
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So any outbreak of hepatitis A means human sewage came into contact with the food (which then wasn’t cooked) or someone shedding the virus had a poop, failed to adequately wash their hands, and then prepared an uncooked food.
Either could be happening in this on-going outbreak of hepatitis A in Australia that has sickened about 130 people and appears to be linked to semi-dry tomatoes.
Victorian health authorities revealed a further 23 cases of the infectious disease diagnosed in the past week.
Victoria's chief health officer Dr John Carnie said that so far this year there had been 200 notifications of hepatitis A, compared to 74 at the same time last year.
A study into the increase of cases indicates that more than two thirds of people that have become ill recalled eating semi-dried tomatoes, he said.
Local producers had promised the Department of Human Services they were doing their best to reduce the risk, while importers of the tomatoes had also been instructed to ensure appropriate quality control measures were in place, he said.
Bottled semi-dried tomatoes in supermarkets were pasteurised and considered safe along with any of the cooked product such as in pizzas or quiches.
The greatest risk would appear to be at restaurants and cafes, where semi-dried tomatoes are served in foods such as salads and sandwiches.
Don’t eat poop. Or at least cook it.
Clean the poop off hands before making semi-dried tomatoes -- linked to spike in Australian hepatitis A cases
The Age, which is the primary newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, in the state of Victoria, reports that semi-dried tomatoes have been linked to several cases of hepatitis A.
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Victoria's chief health officer John Carnie issued a warning on Friday evening (Friday morning here since they’re about 14 hours ahead) advising people to avoid eating semi-dried tomatoes unless they are thoroughly cooked.
"People who may have semi-dried tomatoes at home should not eat them unless they are thoroughly cooked, such as in pizza and quiche. Restaurants and cafes should also follow this advice.”
The Department of Health and Human Services has received 12 hepatitis A notifications this week and several people infected have reported eating semi-dried tomatoes.
Over 100 sickened with Hepatitis A linked to dried tomato product in Australia
A semi-dried tomato product mixed with garlic, herbs and oil has been linked to a spike in hepatitis A cases in at least three states, Australian health authorities say.
South Australian director of public health Kevin Buckett says there have been 26 cases in the state since March, more than 70 in Victoria and an increased number in Queensland.
The cases are thought to be linked to the tomato product, which is manufactured in both Victoria and Queensland and sold in various states by weight.
Queensland Health Deputy Director-General Aaron Groves says an investigation into the possible contamination of unpackaged, loosely purchased semi-dried tomatoes is underway.
Who should be in charge of food inspections?
The New York Times reported this morning on the California leafy greens industry’s hiring of government inspectors in lieu of government-imposed visits by inspectors.
The almond industry and the Florida tomato industry have also instituted their own safety measures that invited oversight by federal agencies when the government did not independently provide it.
“It’s an understandable response when the federal government has left a vacuum,” said Michael R. Taylor, a former officer in two federal food-safety agencies and now a professor at George Washington University. But, he added, “it’s not a substitute” for serious federal regulation.
Is it the government’s responsibility to ensure that food is safe to eat, or is it the responsibility of those producing, processing, and selling it? Both, of course, in addition to those choosing to consume it and feed it to their loved ones.
Then, what’s so great about government-imposed inspections as opposed to inspections the food industry asks for? After devastating outbreaks in each industry awakened them to their invested interest in food safety, these three have been vigilant about minimizing the microbial risks to their commodities. Would the feds do a better job?
According to the Washington Post, a report by Taylor and his colleagues at George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services determined that federal regulation of the inspection system and others is necessary to provide cohesion (and presumably increase efficacy) among safety-assuring efforts. In the report the authors urged Congress to “create a single cohesive food safety network composed of local, state and federal agencies and accountable to the secretary of health and human services.”
Some coordination certainly might move the country toward reducing the number of people who get sick from the food they eat. But each link in the food supply chain must remain proactive in their role in assuring food is safe to consume—regardless of who’s the boss.
Traceability: I can't draw but I can trace
Traceability is one of those food safety buzzwords that’s been around for awhile but doesn’t seem to mean much. Last year during the Salmonella in tomatoes/jalapenos outbreak, health types expressed severe frustration that many food vendors had little idea where their tomatoes were coming from. Same with the current peanut mess – why are companies still figuring out, two months after the initial recalls, that they have the PCA crap in their products.
A report expected to be made public today by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that most food manufacturers and distributors cannot identify the suppliers or recipients of their products despite federal rules that require them to do so.
The investigators contacted 220 food facilities to ask about their supplier records. But only 118 of these businesses were included in the study because the rest were not required under rules adopted by the F.D.A. in 2005 to maintain supplier and recipient records. Of those 118 firms, 70 failed to provide investigators with required information about suppliers or customers, with 6 of the companies failing to provide any information at all.
United Fresh Produce Association President and CEO Tom Stenzel was scheduled to tell the U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Agriculture today that,
“… we have a very good story to tell in produce traceability.”
However, one vendor told investigators that it kept no records of tomato purchases.
Tomatoes have repeatedly been implicated in nationwide food contamination scares, including one last year. Fifteen facilities told investigators they mixed raw products from more than 10 farms.
Peanut butter, spinach, tomato and Chinese toy sandwich
Jon Stewart was poking fun at critics of President Obama’s stimulus package on The Daily Show last night, and came up with this quip:
Funding for regulatory agencies? Please. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a peanut butter, spinach, tomato and Chinese toy sandwich to finish.
The line comes about 3:23 into this video.
Produce leadership: memories of convenience?
At least that’s my take-home message after reading the screed by Bryan Silbermann, president of the Produce Marketing Association, Newark, Del., and Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, Washington, D.C., who are preaching the it’s-time-to-change message at least 10 years too late.
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The title itself -- We can't go back, so let's charge straight ahead -- suggests a memory of convenience or a preference of forgetfulness. “Our industry's key focus now should be to exert as much control as possible over our destiny moving forward. We are, after all, in the best position to lead the task at hand.”
Amy, my French literature wife says,
“When a trauma occurs such as the one that just took place in the produce industry with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, people generally take one of two paths, according to psychoanalytic theory. They either dwell in the past, in the time before the rupture occurred, and pretend that the past was perfect, or they focus solely on the future. In either case, they ignore the painful present and the immediate working out of the trauma at hand.”
I’m not so literate. More literal. Literally, shouldn’t the produce industry have taken control of their destiny after any of the 20-some outbreaks in leafy greens or the 12 outbreaks in tomatoes since 1990? What about after all the other outbreaks in fresh produce?
Casey Jacob, Benjamin Chapman and I have a chapter in a book coming out later this year. It goes something like this:
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From the October, 1996, E. coli O157:H7 in Odwalla fresh juice outbreak to the Sept. 2006 E. coli O157 in spinach outbreak, “almost 500 outbreaks of foodborne illness involving fresh produce were documented, publicized and led to some changes within the industry. … (But) at what point did sufficient evidence exist to compel the fresh produce industry to embrace the kind of change the sector has heralded since 2007? And at what point will future evidence be deemed sufficient to initiate change within an industry? …
“A decade of evidence existed highlighting problems with fresh produce, warning letters were written, yet little was seemingly accomplished. The real challenge for food safety professionals, is to garner support for safe food practices in the absence of an outbreak, to create a culture that values microbiologically safe food, from farm-to-fork, at all times, and not just in the glare of the media spotlight.”
The produce leaders also write in their letter that, now, after all these fresh fruit and vegetable outbreaks,
“Working together with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, state departments of agriculture and foreign governments, there must be extensive industry training and education, to help every employee at every company understand the role they play in creating a food safety culture.”
Wow, sounds like something I’d write. Except I’d throw in an evaluation component to see if the training and education actually work. But I see no evidence the industry wants to undertake such work.
I take that back. Lots of individual growers, and I’ve had the privilege of working with several, want to do the basic work and whatever they can to ensure a safe harvest. They want to know if their people know how to wash the shit off of their hands, and how to keep the shit out of fields of fresh produce.
The associations, the industry leaders, have apparently given up, and now “support fair but mandatory produce food safety rules.” They want government to do their job.
Salmonella on The View
Elisabeth (you may remember her from Survivor: Australia Outback) was quoted as saying "I haven't had a tomato, and I love them, I miss them, but now apparently they are trying to pass the blame onto cilantro."
She went on to say that she thinks that is unfair, and that "the tomato should step up and take responsibility for what they are doing."
Elisabeth, what about the jalapeno?
Check out The View's video page, click on Hot Topics 7/10: Tomatoes.
CNN video: Tomato farmers hit hard
Jimmy Shaffer of the Island Tomato Growers in South Carolina was cited as saying that he plans on maybe filing a lawsuit against the FDA for the way that the investigation has been handled, and that the FDA "threw everybody under a big blanket and let everyone fight for themselves". Makes marketing food safety, if you can prove what you are doing, look like a pretty good idea.
Tomatoes with Salmonella sicken 810 in 36 states
The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Arkansas (10 persons), Arizona (39), California (10), Colorado (8), Connecticut (4), Florida (1), Georgia (18), Idaho (3), Illinois (78), Indiana (11), Kansas (14), Kentucky (1), Maine (1), Maryland (25), Massachusetts (18), Michigan (4), Minnesota (2), Missouri (12), New Hampshire (3), Nevada (4), New Jersey (4), New Mexico (85), New York (25), North Carolina (5), Ohio (6), Oklahoma (19), Oregon (7), Pennsylvania (6), Rhode Island (3), Tennessee (6), Texas (342), Utah (2), Virginia (22), Vermont (1), Washington (4), Wisconsin (6), and the District of Columbia (1).Among the 523 persons with information available, illnesses began between April 10 and June 15, 2008. Patients range in age from <1 to 99 years; 51% are female. At least 95 persons were hospitalized. No deaths have been officially attributed to this outbreak. However, a man in his sixties who died in Texas from cancer, had an infection with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul at the time of his death. The infection may have contributed to his death.
Asking questions about fresh produce
I would sheepishly say, ask questions. Big grocers; local markets; they should be able to explain what they do to reduce microbial risks.
But it’s not so easy. I’ve asked questions for years, and only rarely have received adequate responses. Most are of the it’s-local-it’s-safe or trust-me genre of food pornography, and, like most pornography, it’s fun to watch for awhile but gets really boring.Chris, a student who works with me at Kansas State, went to the student union the other day and ordered a bean and cheese burrito.
“They slapped some pico de gallo on there for me. The previous day they had a sign that said they weren't serving due to Salmonella tomatoes.
“I took it back and asked what made them start serving fresh tomatoes again. Not one of the 4 employees spoke English. All they would say is ‘yes, tomatoes.’”
Buying any sort of fresh produce is an act of faith. I say, cut the BS and start deliberately marketing food safety. That way, someone has to back it up; not some dance with an auditor or certifier, or some other third party that has nothing to do with credibility and everything to do with providing distance when the shit hits the fan – or the produce.
Otherwise, more hucksterism, and more of CNN’s Lou Dobbs.
If I was a tomato grower, this is what I would say -- but only if it were true
"The phone rings and it's a retailer on the U.S. east coast. He says he's got a customer who says she got sick from eating my Ontario greenhouse tomatoes. What do I say?"
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That was the challenge Denton laid out for my group in 1998. Using a risk analysis approach, we assessed the risks for all 220 or so Ontario greenhouse producers, developed management schemes, and communicated what we were doing to buyers, consumers, whoever.We learned lots of things about building trust with individual growers (which means visiting their farms, not plopping them in a classroom and trying to make them HACCP experts), coming up with practical, farm-based solutions, and being on call 24/7 for when those phone calls come in (that's me and Amber Leudtke, back in about 2001, in a greenhouse, above right).
But I could never get the group to take the final step and really promote their food safety program. I suggested putting a url on the stickers at retail that would link to a series of videos showing whoever wanted to see them the food safety practices undertaken by the growers.
During the latest Salmonella-in-tomatoes outbreak, a rep for Nature Sweet, a grower in San Antonio e-mailed me and said, what should we do? This grower does great things for food safety. So I told her.
The rep wrote me back last week and said,
"I spoke with you last week briefly about the tomato outbreak. You made the suggestion about putting our company's safety practices on blogs, YouTube, etc. Well, we took your advice and have created a video that is up on YouTube. Here is the link to the video if you're interested to view it, http://www.youtube.com/naturesweettomatoes."
The video is also below. Sure, I'd rather see a farmer than the marketing dude, and the intro will have to be redone for future use, but the rest is great.
And they spelled it out in a press release:
Our greenhouse growing practices are the foundation of our food safety program:
• The water supply used in our greenhouses is self-contained, filtered, and secure. Water from each well and each greenhouse farm is continuously monitored and tested for purity by our staff and by third party experts.
• We use only natural fertilizers.
• Our tomatoes are picked under sanitary conditions.
• Food safety begins with the seed. Our tomato seeds are always naturally selected, disinfected and germinated under sanitary conditions.
• Within each greenhouse, we control and monitor all intakes – water, nutrients, and pest control.
In addition to our greenhouse practices, we also employ the following food safety initiatives:
• Regulate all aspects of tomato production and processing, as well as employ the best agricultural practices.
• Monitor all of our systems continuously to ensure that our produce exceeds the highest food safety standards and FDA guidelines. In addition to our adherence to HACCP-based safety practices, we follow rigorous training, growing, packing, and shipping standards.
• Use a food safety coding system that provides us with traceability of every case and pallet of tomatoes to the greenhouse in which they are grown. In addition, each individual selling unit has a comprehensive food safety tracking code.
• Test, monitor, and audit our products, our water, our processes, and our procedures regularly with staff and third-party experts.
I can quibble about details. But it's a great start, and, like transparency in risk assessments, now that it's out there, it can be improved. It's a lot better than just telling consumers to wash their tomatoes or it's local so it's safe.
Are tomatoes safer at the farmers market?
With a tomato-related salmonella outbreak in 16 states, the Neighborhood Farmers Market Association got this interesting question:
"Are tomatoes from the University District farmer's market safe to eat, given the FDA's recent warning about tomatoes & salmonella?"
The F.D.A. has linked the nasty illness to raw red plum, red Roma and round red tomatoes. The feds say it's OK to eat those varieties if they're sourced from regions that are not associated with the outbreak, clearing tomatoes from places like California and Canada. Washington did not make the all-clear-as-far-as-we-know list.
The market association is checking in with its greenhouse growers on the topic, and sent out this reply to the query:
"Yes, our local farm tomatoes are definitely safe. The outbreak is likely due to the wide use of some kind of composting medium on big factory farms that was contaminated - but none of our market farmers are connected in any way to those kinds of operations. In fact, the tomatoes at the markets right now are all hothouse tomatoes, which makes them even safer, as they are grown in wood bark. Also, our farmers are mostly growing heirloom varieties, both in their hothouses and in their fields.The FDA Web site also notes that homegrown tomatoes are safe. Our market farmers are essentially growing homegrown tomatoes: they are not huge operations but rather smaller family farms, using safe, healthy and sustainable growing methods. These farmers live on their farms, pick the harvest themselves and eat the food they grow as well as selling it to local markets."
I checked in with Doug Powell, associate professor and scientific director of the International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University -- but to me better known for "BarfBlog," an acerbic and opinionated and evidence-based blog on food safety.
His take on the farmer's market go-ahead? Not so fast. He wrote:
"Whether your produce comes from around the corner or around the globe, contamination must be prevented beginning on the farm. Ask your tomato supplier:
-- What do you do for food safety?
-- Do you or your suppliers test wash water for bacteria? Irrigation
water?
-- What soil amendments are being used?
-- Do you or your suppliers train your staff on handwashing?"
But wait! Aren't the farmer's markets at least safe from the current salmonella outbreak, I asked, if the farmers are truly growing different varieties than the ones identified with the problem?
Powell said yes, although there's no basis (yet, I say) for the speculation that big factory farms caused the problem. In general, though, when it comes to food safety, "there is no evidence that sustainable and local is safer."
But wouldn't outbreaks from small local farms at least be easier to contain and easier to track?
Maybe, Powell wrote, but it's a tough comparison to make. "We have no sense how often they happen because they are small and don't get picked up."
So, talk to the people who grow your produce. Ask them questions. The advantage of the farmer's markets is, at least at the markets you actually get that chance.
Barfblog: the acerbic and opinionated and evidence-based blog on food safety. I like that.
F.D.A. reports progress in tracing Salmonella in tomatoes; some Florida counties cleared
"We are getting closer to identifying the source or sources."
Dr. Patricia Griffin, the chief of the disease centers’ enteric disease epidemiology branch, was cited as saying no one knows whether food has gotten more dangerous or whether the growing number of outbreaks results from better surveillance, and that both may be true.
The disease control agency has confirmed 167 salmonella cases in the current outbreak. But Dr. Griffin said the agency estimated that only 1 in 38 cases were ever reported to the authorities, so the problem was likely to be greater.
Keith Warriner of the University of Guelph told New Scientist.com that pathogens like Salmonella have probably evolved to cope with life outside our intestines. Escherichia coli O157:H7 strain thrives on leafy greens such as spinach and lettuce, while Salmonella tends to do best on fleshier fruits and vegetables.
The bacteria probably come from groundwater contaminated with animal faeces, he says. Once Salmonella gets on and into a tomato, the fruit acts like an incubator. Bacteria divide even in the cool temperatures of packing houses. "If you get a few samples into the internal tissue, then they will grow for sure," Warriner adds.Meanwhile, I've been to Toronto and back to Quebec City, with a flurry of media activity along the way. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's The National caught up with me in Toronto and aired the story on the national news last night (upper, right). Unfortunately, my Kansas State hockey T-shirt logo was not included in the camera shot.
Last night, from 1-2 a.m. EST, I was the guest on Coast to Coast with George Noory which is broadcast on some 500 AM radio stations across the U.S.. Besides the government and alien conspiracy explanations of how Salmonela gets in tomatoes, it was a lot of fun, and we covered a lot of the issues. If anyone out there heard the show, please pass on your constructive comments.This morning it was off to the CBC studios in Quebec City for an appearance on Newsworld. I proudly wore my barfblog T-shirt.
And if you're a French professor or graduate student from Kansas and you're in Quebec, you have to partake of the local food culture; that means poutine.
Salmonella Symptoms
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Someone came to the blog this morning searching “Salmonella Saintpaul flatulence” inspiring this post. As of last night 138 people in 11 states were sick from Salmonella in tomatoes.According to http://www.about-salmonella.com/salmonella_symptoms_risks, Salmonella can cause gastroenteritis, typhoid fever, and bacteremia. The following are symptoms of Salmonella gastroenteritis:
In mild cases diarrhea may be non-bloody, occur several times per day, and not be very voluminous; in severe cases it may be frequent, bloody and/or mucoid, and of high volume. Vomiting is less common than diarrhea.
- diarrhea
- abdominal cramps
- fever, generally 100°F to 102°F (38°C to 39°C)
- nausea, and/or
- vomiting
Other frequently reported symptoms are
Whereas the diarrhea typically lasts 24 to 72 hours, patients often report fatigue and other nonspecific symptoms lasting 7 days or longer.
- headaches
- muscle pain, and
- joint pain
The FDA has a thorough analysis of Salmonella in their Bad Bug Book.
If you are concerned that you have food poisoning, you should contact your local health unit or Seattle law firm Marler-Clark that specializes in foodborne illness litigation.
Salmonella in tomato toll rises to 138; E. coli in lettuce outbreak appears over
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that tomatoes grown in Texas, California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina appear to be blameless. Those imported from Belgium, Canada, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico also did not appear to be the source.
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The FDA said preliminary investigations suggest that raw red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes are the source of the problem.Meanwhile, the Washington Health Department said an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least nine people in Pierce and Thurston counties is apparently over and that there have been no new cases since May 29.
A spokesman, Donn Moyer, said the infection apparently came from romaine lettuce that was served at schools or restaurants. Moyer says health officials haven't been able to identify the source for sure, although the Food and Drug Administration is still investigating.
Scene and heard: salmonella in tomatoes
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said preliminary investigations suggest that raw red plum, red Roma or round red tomatoes are to blame.The agency advised residents of Texas and New Mexico to only eat tomatoes that haven’t been connected to the outbreak, including homegrown, cherry and grape tomatoes as well as those sold attached to the vine.
They also reminded consumers that fresh salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo and other products may contain raw tomatoes.
Albertsons has joined Kroger and Central Market in pulling tomatoes from its shelves.
New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry said Thursday in a statement,
"The department's food program bureau is contacting distributors of tomatoes to ensure they notify food establishments to stop serving tomatoes suspected in making people sick."
KRIS 6 News in Corpus Christi, Texas, conducted a random phone survey Wednesday afternoon, and found tomatoes are temporarily not on the menu at Subway, La Playa, Olive Garden, Water Street Restaurants, and Schlotzky's.
However, tomatoes are still being served at TGI Friday's, Fuddrucker's, Katz 21, Nolan's Poorboys, McDonald's, Mimi's by the Sea, Whataburger, and Wallbangers.
Reuters reported that even pork bellies are feeling the pressure, as prices fell $4 to $15 per hundredweight in the cash markets on Thursday. The bacon for BLT sandwiches is sliced from pork bellies.Heard and said: salmonella in tomatoes
The Houston Chronicle interviewed several shoppers.Anthony Castillo, who was among shoppers at a Randalls at 3131 W. Holcombe, said,
"This kind of freaks me out. I think I'll be going sans tomatoes for a while."
Shopper Rachell Cobb-Valion said,,
"They are always telling you to eat more fruits and vegetables, but you can get as much poisoning from them as when you eat meat."
Tomato lover Bobby Kimble said,
"It doesn't bother me at all. Nothing ever bothers me. If it goes in my stomach, it's gone."
It's OK, just say it, tomatoes can be a risk
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Ben Chapman and I wrote in the Windsor Star today that self-proclaimed food safety guru Dan Dempster, president of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, either knows something about the microbial safety of fresh produce that has escaped, oh, everyone else, or he is spinning when he says that produce "is actually the safest fresh food group."Yeah, compared to fresh ground beef, produce looks safe; but consumers ain't lining up for cooked lettuce.
As we wrote,
"It's easy to write off Dempster's letter as a marketing puff piece, which it is, especially since he had a real opportunity to acknowledge the risks associated with fresh fruits and vegetables and focus on the proactive efforts the produce industry is taking to actively reduce them."
What's not puff is the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control report on multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections associated with raw tomatoes eaten in U.S. restaurants in 2005 and 2006.
"During 2005--2006, four large multistate outbreaks of Salmonella infections associated with eating raw tomatoes at restaurants occurred in the United States. The four outbreaks resulted in 459 culture-confirmed cases of salmonellosis in 21 states."
In Virginia in 2005, the outbreak strain of S. Newport was isolated from irrigation pond water near tomato fields. In another outbreak, the tomatoes were grown in Florida near multiple potential animal reservoirs of Salmonella (e.g., cattle, wild pigs, wild birds, amphibians, and reptiles) present in and adjacent to the drainage ditches.
We've outlined lots of proactive steps that can be undertaken by fresh fruit and vegetable growers.
