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Deconstructing FDA
Jim Prevor's Perishable Pundit — October 2, 2006
It began with a bang, a shocking, unprecedented
request that nobody eat fresh spinach, but it is ending with a muddled
whimper. FDA issued a
press release, but let us deconstruct some of it here:
FDA is announcing today that all spinach
implicated in the current outbreak has traced back to Natural Selection
Foods LLC of San Juan Bautista, California.
FDA, the State of California, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and the United States Department of Agriculture continue to
investigate the cause of the outbreak. This includes continued
inspections and sample collection in facilities, the environment and
water, as well as studies of animal management, water use and the
environment.
That seems a message certain to confuse consumers. We traced it back to
one company, but we really have no idea of the cause and the
investigation is ongoing.
Although the current
outbreak may ultimately trace back to a specific field(s), there has
been a long history of E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks involving leafy greens
from the central California region. Spinach processed by other
manufacturers has not been implicated in this outbreak, however, based
on discussions with industry, and given the past E. coli O157:H7
outbreaks, FDA and the State of California expect the industry to
develop a comprehensive plan which is designed to minimize the risk of
another outbreak due to E. coli O157:H7 in spinach grown in central
California. While this plan is under development, FDA and the State of
California reiterate our previous concerns and advise firms to review
their current operations in light of the agency’s guidance for
minimizing microbial food safety hazards.
This makes virtually no sense. A day ago, the situation was so dangerous
nobody could eat spinach grown anywhere in the country. Now FDA would
like a plan to minimize future outbreaks but the status quo ante is
perfectly acceptable for right now. And, by the way, the guilty and the
innocent will all be treated the same.
FDA and the State of California have
previously expressed serious concern with the continuing outbreaks of
foodborne illness associated with the consumption of fresh and fresh-cut
lettuce and other leafy greens. After discussions with industry, FDA and
the State of California, as part of a longer term strategy, now expect
industry to develop a plan to minimize the risk of another outbreak due
to E. coli O157:H7 in all leafy greens, including lettuce.
Of course, we had that already. Otherwise we would have
outbreaks every day. And what does “minimize” mean. Should we test the
water every week? Every day? Every hour? This is not so much regulating
the industry or even guiding the industry as much as dreaming or wishing
for an outcome.
The Grower Shipper Association of Central
California, the Produce Marketing Association, the United Fresh Produce
Association, and the Western Growers Association said today, “We are
committed to working together as one industry to learn everything we can
from this tragedy, and will redouble our efforts to do everything in our
power to reduce the potential risk of foodborne illness. As we have in
the past, we will work aggressively with the Food and Drug
Administration and state regulatory authorities to ensure the industry’s
growing and processing practices continue to be based on the very best
scientific information available, and that we are doing everything
possible to provide the nation with safe and healthy produce.”
The trade associations deserve a lot of credit for working
with an FDA that has shown itself to be dysfunctional. The FDA starts
out by causing a mass panic and countless damage by putting a de facto
ban on spinach consumption when a voluntary recall of one brand or, at
the extreme, one processor’s product, would have sufficed. Then the FDA
ends up implementing no changes at all to ensure safety or rebuild
consumer confidence.
One other very good thing is that the joint statement promises that the
industry will do “...everything possible to provide the nation with safe
and healthy produce”, which is a far better and more realistic
notion than promising safe produce.
Implementation of these plans will be
voluntary, but FDA and the State of California are not excluding the
possibility of regulatory requirements in the future.
Voluntary implementation is what the industry has always
wanted, but I am starting to find it difficult to believe that this will
hold. We need, as an industry, to reexamine the point. Tom Nassif of
Western Growers Association, raises a valid point about holding foreign
producers to the same high food safety standard, but it is difficult to
hold foreign producers to voluntary standards. The current outbreak also
teaches us, very clearly, that the whole industry can be destroyed by
one sub-standard operator. Do we really trust each other so much that we
are comfortable relying on people voluntarily doing the right thing?
FDA will be holding a public meeting to
address the larger issue of foodborne illness linked to leafy greens
later in the year once the current investigation is complete.
Obviously our growers, trade associations and political friends
convinced the FDA to not destroy an industry while it waited for final
results. But the industry will be fighting this battle for a long time
to come.
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