E Coli Lawyer & Attorney : Marler Clark Law Firm : E. coli Blog

Jane Liaw from the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported today on USDA's proposal to ask the public about whether the leafy green industry should be further regulated.  More regulation would be USDA's response to several E. coli outbreaks that have been the result of consumption of contaminated produce.  Liaw wrote:

One option on the table is a national version of the industry-developed standards that followed the E. coli outbreak and now govern California farmers and leafy green handlers. Though some farmers in Santa Cruz County are unhappy about the regulations, most support national standards.

"We'd get a uniform set of food safety standards. Nothing wrong with that," said Michael Dobler of Dobler & Sons in Watsonville, who believes that everyone should be held to the standards he already embraces.

The USDA is considering both voluntary and mandatory standards, officials say, but favors a voluntary program that allows flexibility.

Much controversy has come from last year's spinach E. coli outbreak - but so have changes.  California and Arizona leafy greens producers have signed marketing agreements that were designed to encourage good manufacturing practices across their industry, and the United Fresh Produce Association asked the government to step in and regulate farming and processing practices for leafy greens. 

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We learned today that lettuce mix recalled by Dole yesterday contained lettuce from the Salinas Valley in California - the area that has produced E. coli-contaminated produce identified as the source of past outbreaks, including last year's spinach E. coli outbreak.  Dole Fresh Vegetables president Eric Schwartz confirmed the Salinas connection in an article in the Monterey Herald:

Dole Fresh Vegetables president Eric Schwartz confirmed that the romaine and green leaf lettuce in its Hearts Delight salad mix was produced locally and mixed with butter lettuce from Ohio and romaine from growers in Colorado.

The lettuces were processed at Dole's plant in Springfield, Ohio, on Sept. 6, said Schwartz. Eighty-eight cases — or 528 bags — were distributed in Canada and 755 cases containing 4,530 bags in the U.S.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Dole Food Co, the parent company of Dole Fresh Vegetables, issued a voluntary recall Monday, one day after the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued its own advisory in Canada.

While he refused to name the fields where the lettuce was grown, Dole did confirm that the lettuce products had been shipped to several provinces in Canada as well as to Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

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Marler Clark has been investigating an E. coli case on behalf of an Oregonian who was visiting Kaua'i when he was infected with E. coli.  Today, Hawaiian health officials announced that an E. coli outbreak in March has been traced to lettuce grown on Kaua'i.  As reported by the Honolulu Advertiser:

All eight people were most likely infected by eating contaminated lettuce from a Kaua'i farm, where heavy rains and flooding had carried E. coli bacteria from a cattle pasture onto the lettuce patch.

Officials declined to name the farm they suspect was the source of the lettuce.

The state Department of Health said that the eight victims, including the four who required hospital care, have recovered without complications from the outbreak of a strain of E. coli O157, whose symptoms include abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea and which in severe cases can cause kidney failure.

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August 23, 2006
Monterey Herald (CA)
Dania Akkad

Federal and state regulators, researchers and lettuce industry representatives are scheduled to meet in Salinas Thursday for a foodborne illness outbreak summit.

Organized by the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at the University of California, Davis, the meeting will focus in part on how investigations of leafy green-related outbreaks can be improved and what areas of research could help prevent outbreaks.

Scheduled speakers at the meeting include Dr. Robert Brackett, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, representatives for the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association and the Western Growers Association.

Since 1995, 19 outbreaks of E.Coli 0157:H7, involving 409 individuals who became ill and two others who died, have been connected to fresh lettuce and pre-cut lettuce and spinach, according to the FDA. In eight of those outbreaks, the produce came from Salinas.

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