Report Criticizes FDA Over Spinach Packers

[Celebration]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/12/AR2008031203977.html

Since 2001, nearly half of all federal inspections of facilities that package fresh spinach revealed serious sanitary problems, but the Food and Drug Administration did not take "meaningful" enforcement action, a House committee report released yesterday found.

The most common problems uncovered by FDA inspections of 67 facilities included inadequate restroom sanitation, litter piles and indoor condensation posing a risk of food contamination by microorganisms. Inspectors also found buildings vulnerable to rodent infestation and workers with uncovered hair and poor hygiene.

Twenty serious outbreaks of E. coli have been traced to fresh lettuce or spinach since 1995. One of the most troublesome was a 2006 outbreak in bagged spinach processed by California-based Natural Selection Foods that sickened more than 200 people and was linked to three deaths.

The FDA acknowledged gaps in its food safety efforts after that episode. But the report by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says the problems were worse: It showed that spinach facilities were inspected about once every 2.4 years despite federal guidelines that say most should have been visited at least annually.

.........................

"The inspection reports . . . raise serious questions about the ability of FDA to protect the safety of fresh spinach and other fresh produce," committee investigators wrote. "It appears that FDA is inspecting high-risk facilities infrequently, failing to take vigorous enforcement action when it does inspect and identify violations, and not even inspecting the most probable sources of many outbreaks."

[fed-up]

1. Report suggests wastewater (from dairy farm) link to Taco John's (2006) E coli outbreak-

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/fs/food-disease/news/feb2608lettuce-jw.html

Report suggests wastewater link to Taco John's E coli outbreak
Feb 26, 2008 (CIDRAP News)

Officials from California and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a final report on a 2006 Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with iceberg lettuce from Taco John's restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota, revealing that wastewater from nearby dairy operations might have contaminated irrigation water.

..snip

Investigators from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Iowa Department of Public Health had identified shredded iceberg lettuce served at the restaurants as the likely cause of the E coli outbreak. The FDA, working with Minnesota and California officials, had traced the lettuce the restaurants received from a Minnesota distributor to growing regions in California's Central Coast and Central Valley areas.

Further trace-back studies by the FDA and California authorities steered investigation and sampling to two growing areas, but investigators focused their efforts on the Wegis Ranch in Buttonwillow after 10 of the 32 samples from the site matched the Taco John's outbreak strain, according to the report.

Four of the samples matching the outbreak strain came from two dairies located near the lettuce fields.

After analyzing water systems in the area and at the ranch, investigators found several confluence points between the local water district's system and those of the ranch and the two dairy operations.


"A key finding in this investigation was the dairy wastewater blending and distribution system used by the Wegis Ranch to irrigate crops and distribute water," the investigators wrote. They also reported that the system had inadequate backflow devices, which might have contaminated the growing fields with wastewater.

[Celebration]

2. more from the article

Didn't have room to quote any more, but this addresses--

Authorities tied the 2006 outbreak to cattle or feral pig feces found in the fields of spinach grower Mission Organics. But the House report revealed that FDA inspections found repeated problems at several facilities operated by Natural Selection Foods years before the outbreak.

"FDA at no time required the firm to correct these conditions at any of its facilities, even after laboratory tests indicated the presence of microbial contamination at the exact site later implicated in the 2006 outbreak," the report's authors wrote.

[fed-up]

3. repeated violations-no further actions-voluntary compliance-no product samples

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/taste/stories/031308dnlivspinach..1e86209.html

Packaged fresh-spinach producers failed inspections
03:27 PM CDT on Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Bloomberg News

U.S. regulators found "objectionable conditions" in almost half of their inspections of packaged fresh-spinach producers and took no "meaningful enforcement action," a congressional report says.

The Food and Drug Administration listed poor sanitation and other deficiencies in 47 percent of 199 inspections from January 2001 to February 2007, according to a report today by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. None of the cases was referred to the FDA's enforcement arm for further action.

..snip
In 38 cases, the FDA found repeated violations at facilities that produce fresh packaged spinach and didn't force corrective actions, according to the report. The FDA instead requested voluntary compliance.

..snip

In eight cases reviewed by the committee, the spinach producers refused to allow FDA inspectors access to records or other information, preventing a "full review of the food safety practices," according to the report. Natural Selection declined to prove written procedures for recalls during inspections in 2001 and 2002, the report said. FDA doesn't have the legal power to force companies to provide records.

The scope of FDA inspections isn't wide enough to detect sources of contamination, according to the report. The FDA doesn't routinely inspect fields that may contribute to contamination.

Even in cases in which the agency was "presented with information indicating the presence of possible contamination, FDA neglected to collect product samples," according to the report.

..snip

[fed-up]

4. I'm watching this issue closely- BF is organic greens famer & any new regulations will cost $$$$$ nt