Industry Concerned Over FDA Food Safety Budget

            As reported on February 6, 2008 – The FDA has requested a budget increase of $42.4m for food safety initiatives in the 2009 fiscal year.  This budget increase would take the total for the Protecting America’s Food Supply Initiative to $662 million.  The increase would assist in implementing a series of initiatives announced in 2007, including the Food Protection Plan, the Action Plan for Import Safety, and announced agreements with governmental agencies in China on food and medical product safety initiatives.  This request comes with growing concerns that under-funding at the department is putting American consumers at risk.

Lawsuit Claims Fertilizer Contaminated Crops

            Oceano Packing Co., of Oceano, California, filed a civil lawsuit against two fertilizer companies, claiming salmonella-tainted fertilizer contaminated the organic grower’s crops and fields and cost the company more than $1 million.  The lawsuit, filed February 6, 2008 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, names fertilizer manufacturer True Organic Products Inc., Helm, California, and Denver-based distributor Western Farm Service Inc. as defendants.  Oceano alleges in court documents that last year, contaminated fertilizer forced the company to destroy crops, including spring mix and spinach, already-harvested product and product that was still in the fields.  The suit alleges that Oceano lost 1.4 million pounds of crops and more than $1 million in revenue.  There has not been a decision as of yet…

Hallmark/Westland Beef Recall

            On February 17, 2008, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., a Chino, California establishment voluntarily recalled approximately 143 million pounds of beef products produced since February 2006 because of evidence showing they were produced in non-compliance with FSIS regulations.  FSIS officials stated that, “Through evidence obtained by FSIS, the establishment did not consistently contact the FSIS public health veterinarian in situations in which cattle became non-ambulatory after passing ante-mortem inspection, which is not compliant with FSIS regulations.  This noncompliant activity occurred occasionally over the past two years and therefore all beef product produced during the period of time for which evidence indicates such activity occurred has been determined by FSIS to be unfit for human consumption, and is, therefore, adulterated.”

            USDA launched its inquiry into operations at the Chino, CA based company on January 30^, 2008 after the Humane Society of the United States released undercover video depicting animal mistreatment at the plant.  This recall was a Class II recall, which means that the possibility of adverse health effects from consuming beef included within the recall is extremely remote.  The products subject to this recall were sent to wholesale distributors nationwide in bulk packages and were not available fore direct purchase by consumers.  This is the largest beef recall in U.S. history.  The next largest recall of any class was 35 million pounds of various ready-to-eat products recalled in 1999 for Listeria concerns.

2006 E. coli Outbreak Linked to Local Farm

            February 22, 2008 – Food safety officials linked a Kern county farm to tainted iceberg lettuce that sickened 81 people in Iowa and Minnesota in late 2006.  Lettuce raised on Wegis Ranch in Buttonwillow and served at Taco John’s restaurants was the source of the large E.coli outbreak, the 16-month federal and state investigation revealed.  The report did not definitively state how the lettuce was contaminated, but said water contaminated by manure from two nearby dairies could be a possible source.  According to the report, Wegis Ranch uses manure water to irrigate some fields where animal feed is grown.  It said lettuce linked to the E.coli outbreak was grown directly across from two of those fields.  E. coli samples from the ranch and dairies genetically matched the strain found in the tainted lettuce.

Newly Published FDA Guidelines

            The Food and Drug Administration published guidelines that suggest employees of fresh-cut fruit and vegetable processors wash their hands to help stop the spread of contamination.  The voluntary guidelines were posted on the FDA website www.fda.gov on February 21, 2008 and include recommendations on hygiene and produce tracking.  FDA stated the guidelines “complement FDA’s current good manufacturing practice requirements for foods.”

US: New Food Safety Tools Target Small Meat Firms

            February 26, 2008 – The University of Wisconsin-Madison has announced the development of web-based resources to help small meat and poultry processors with HACCP implementation.  Resources have been developed in three areas: validation of critical limits, development of HACCP plans and evaluation of raw-product temperature deviations.  Meat and poultry processors looking for scientific validation of critical limits, SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and corrective actions can refer to published research-based information available at the website of the University’s Center for Meat Process Validation: www.meathaccp.wisc.edu

LGMA Issues First Status Report

            The agreement’s first status report comes just seven months since government inspectors began conducting mandatory food-safety audits for Leafy Green Marketing Agreement members.  The report details all audit findings from July through December 2007 as well as other actions undertaken since this unprecedented food-safety program was established.  California’s leafy greens industry has made “huge strides” in the past year, and the California Leafy Greens Handler Marketing Agreement’s first status report bears that out, according to LGMA Chief Executive Officer Scott Horsfall. 

            Among the highlights of the status report are 368 audits of leafy greens farms by trained and certified government inspectors that were conducted from July 23 to December 31.  The audits include five specific areas of inspections with several checkpoints that inspectors must review for compliance.  There are a total of 184 checkpoints that government inspectors must verify during an audit.  The audits determined that the overall compliance with LGMA food-safety practices is quite high, with member companies being in compliance with 99.3 percent of the checkpoints audited.  Those audits resulted in 457 citations for non-conformities.  None involved shipping unsafe product.  Many of these citations involved incorrect or incomplete record-keeping or minor infractions that could be fixed on site in the presence of government inspectors.  Mr. Horsfall said that two companies applying for certification fell short and won’t be eligible to re-apply until April 1, 2008.  Three other companies were de-certified for a two week period.  Members of the agreement have significantly enhanced internal food-safety systems involved in the production of leafy greens, and food-safety expenditures by member companies have increased by 201 percent since September 2006.