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Despite the efforts of the federal government to keep America’s food supply clean, every year nearly 80 million people in the United States fall ill after eating food contaminated with dangerous bacteria such as salmonella, listeria, and E. coli. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 5,000 Americans inflicted with food poisoning die every year.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced another massive recall of fresh produce last week, this time for 1,715 cartons of bunched spinach that tested positive for salmonella bacteria in a random test conducted by the USDA. Alarmed by the frequency of foods recalled over bacterial contamination fears, many consumer advocacy groups and legislators have indicted the federal government’s food inspection system, calling for an overhaul of the FDA and USDA systems currently in place. But in an age of mass production and processing that makes cross contamination ever more likely, it’s wise for the consumer to take certain measures to mitigate the risk of becoming sick from tainted food.
This week the House of Representatives passed legislation representing what would be the largest overhaul of the food safety system in American history. The measure passed the House 283 to 142 with nearly all Democrats and about half of Republicans voting in favor. The Senate is expected to review the bill in the fall after its recess.
A California produce grower has recalled romaine lettuce that was distributed throughout 29 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico because of salmonella contamination. Tanimura & Antle, Inc. of Salinas, Calif., issued the recall after the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture detected salmonella on the lettuce in a randomized test.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is informing healthcare professionals and consumers of a nationwide recall on Vital Pharmaceuticals Stealth Chocolate and Stealth Vanilla powdered dietary supplements because the products have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.
Another salmonella-related recall was announced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, this time for a brand of sauce and gravy mixes manufactured by the C.F. Sauer Company of Richmond, Virginia.
Following an outbreak in October 2007 of salmonella poisoning linked to Banquet brand chicken pot pies, ConAgra, the manufacturer of the pies, immediately began talking food safety. But instead of assuming responsibility for manufacturing a contaminated product that sickened as many as 15,000 people, ConAgra suggested that killing any salmonella bacteria in its products before eating them was ultimately the consumers’ responsibility.
Neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration nor state health agencies require food manufacturers to test the safety of their products before they enter the market. Inspectors periodically visit the factories where food is processed to make sure their operations are up to code, but as we have seen in the recent past, even those rules can be insufficient and lax.
This week, Food and Drug Administration officials issued an alert warning consumers to avoid eating pistachios and food containing pistachios while it investigates the source of another possible salmonella outbreak.
The FDA announced that Setton International Foods, Inc., a division of Terra Bella Inc., would voluntarily recall approximately 2 million pounds of roasted pistachios that have been shipping since last fall. The investigation and recall come after two people contacted the FDA complaining of symptoms of salmonella poisoning after eating the nuts. Although the link has not yet been confirmed, the plant where the pistachios were processed temporarily shut down last week.
Last month, inspectors from the Food and Drug Administration visited the Plainview, Texas, peanut processing plant owned and operated by the Peanut Corporation of America. The inspection was ordered after investigators linked a salmonella outbreak that sickened nearly 700 people in nearly every state to the Peanut Corp’s plant in Blakely, Georgia. Shortly after the outbreak, news broke that the company’s sister plant in Texas plant actually operated unlicensed and uninspected for years. Inspectors rushed in.
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