Sludge Watch ==> Leafy Green Watch - the new blogspot

[Maureen Reilly]

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/07/leafy_green_wat.html

uly 24, 2007
Leafy Green Watch is our site of the day

http://leafygreenwatch.blogspot.com/

California State Senator Dean Florez, who has championed the cause of food 
safety with a package of legislation and hearings into E. coli outbreaks, 
has just launched a new website dedicated to the safety of leafy green 
produce, Leafy Green Watch. This is a blog, with news articles and 
information on current events in this field, no pun intended.

It is quite timely. It starts just as a "voluntary marketing agreement" 
among leafy green handlers is being touted as an alternative to state 
regulation on food safety. Florez is the Chairman of the California Senate's 
Senate Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness and knows a lot about this.

Read this site and you'll learn that signatories to the marketing agreement 
are afforded the opportunity to affix a stamp to the paperwork they present 
to retailers informing them that they have signed-on to the voluntary 
marketing agreement. However, under current plans, consumers will not have 
the opportunity to see the seal – which was once touted by the industry as a 
landmark effort to inform consumers about the safety of their produce.

“Under the voluntary marketing agreement, consumers are certainly left in 
the dark about the safety of their produce,” said Senator Florez. “This 
blogspot is a real attempt to bring new and important information about the 
lack of mandatory enforcement of food safety laws and its consequences.”

Florez also notes that the voluntary marketing agreement lacked a functional 
traceback system for tainted produce nor does it provide health officials 
with the power to recall produce from store shelf that may be contaminated 
with the deadly E. Coli O157:H7 bacteria which was responsible for last 
year’s deaths and sicknesses.

The blogspot will provide consumers and others with the opportunity to voice 
their opinions and to learn more about the dangers of an “all -voluntary” 
industry-sponsored approach to food safety.


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

Here is what LeafyGreenWatch has to say today:

http://leafygreenwatch.blogspot.com/


Monday, July 23, 2007
Keeping Greens Clean

Industry-run program to improve food safety will begin tomorrow
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

July 22, 2007

When Imperial County grower Jack Vessey surveyed one of his late-winter 
spinach fields several months ago, he knew he'd never raise the crop the 
same way again.

After E. coli-tainted spinach from Northern California killed three people 
and sickened more than 200 last fall, the California produce industry 
quickly drew up tough new rules for handling leafy greens from field to 
fork.

Nearly all of the state's growers and processors, including those handling 
organic products, have signed on to the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, 
which officially begins tomorrow.
It's uncertain whether the agreement will prevent another E. coli outbreak, 
but producers say its stringent measures and inspections are the closest 
they can come to preventing crop contamination.

“We're going to do everything in our power to prevent anything like that 
happening again,” said Vessey, who helped draft the measures. “We wanted to 
do the fastest-possible remedy for our industry, and this was the fastest.”

Critics say a mandatory government program would be more likely to ensure 
food safety, but the marketing agreement helped the state's estimated $2 
billion leafy greens industry forestall new legislation.

The marketing agreement covers iceberg, romaine, green leaf, red leaf, 
butter and baby leaf lettuces; escarole; endive; spring mix; spinach; 
cabbage; kale; arugula; and chard.

Because 98 percent to 99 percent of California growers and processors of 
leafy greens have signed the agreement, nearly all leafy greens in the U.S. 
food-distribution chain will be covered. Northern and Central California 
growers supply 90 percent of the leafy greens that Americans eat during the 
summer and fall, and Imperial County and western Arizona supply 90 percent 
of those products consumed in the winter and spring.

The economic incentives for a voluntary agreement were strong. The E. coli 
outbreak in September caused a $100 million loss for California's $160 
million spinach crop, and sales are still off.

Vessey said he and other growers in Imperial County, which was not involved 
in the outbreak, took a 15 percent to 20 percent hit.

Beginning tomorrow, representatives from the state Department of Food and 
Agriculture will inspect fields and processing operations to make certain 
the new rules are being followed. If not, sanctions will be imposed. They 
could include other handlers refusing the violators' products.
There is a cost for this vigilance. Consumers should expect to see prices of 
leafy greens rise soon. Handlers and growers are being assessed 2 cents per 
carton to pay for the program, and they're expected to pass the costs along. 
Eventually, a sticker or mark on packages will indicate which products have 
been produced under terms of the pact.

Tim Chelling, the spokesman for the Western Growers Association, which took 
the lead in creating the agreement, said the pact's overall cost will run in 
the millions, but “you're talking about pennies for individual products.”

“The costs are not going to be invisible,” he said, “but they'll be well 
worth it as an investment. We want to restore confidence and trust, and you 
can't put a figure on that.”

Rosemari Blalock, a San Diegan shopping last week for leafy greens at the 
Uptown Ralphs grocery store, said she won't mind paying more. “Oh, 
definitely not – if more measures are being taken,” she said.

Growers say that the assessment does not cover their costs in adhering to 
the agreement's stricter standards.

“I'll have to pay a certain amount per acre,” Vessey said. “I'm going to 
have to hire somebody to run my food-safety program. I'm going to have to do 
things differently next season.”
Those who sign the agreement promise to follow best practices for growing 
and handling leafy greens, as defined in the agreement, and be subject to 
periodic government inspections. Among the best practices are more frequent 
and specific water and soil tests, and greater separation of growing areas 
from septic tanks.

Growers and processors also must have a trace-back system to quickly 
identify where any contaminated leafy greens were harvested and processed.

For the most part, health officials and food scientists still can't pinpoint 
how deadly microbes such as E. coli and salmonella get onto food products in 
individual outbreaks.
The source of September's E. coli outbreak has been traced to river water 
and animal feces on a small grass-fed cattle operation in the Salinas Valley 
that leased land to spinach grower Mission Organics. The tainted spinach was 
contained in Dole-brand bagged baby spinach processed by Natural Selection 
Foods in San Juan Bautista.

But how the spinach got contaminated remains a mystery. It might have been 
spread by pig or cattle feces, tainted irrigation water, birds flying 
overhead or poor worker sanitation.
“Possibly, maybe even probably,” Chelling said of the odds of avoiding 
another outbreak through the new marketing agreement. “But nobody is saying 
this is risk-free. No one is saying they'll get to 100 percent prevention, 
but this raises the standard.”

Christine Carson, another San Diegan shopping for greens last week, said she 
has not cut back on her consumption of the foods.

“I'm more worried about pesticides,” she said. “But I would feel a little 
bit safer because I'm a little paranoid.”

>From the start, the marketing agreement has been under attack by consumer, 
labor and health groups, who want broader measures required by law.

“This doesn't inspire confidence that the industry is the one overseeing the 
safety measures,” said Elisa Odabashian, director of the West Coast office 
of Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

“It's the fox taking care of the henhouse,” she said. “There's still room 
for contaminated produce to reach the marketplace.”

Odabashian also took issue with the mark that will be created to identify 
the products produced under the marketing pact – products that will cost 
consumers extra.

“All food should be safe in the marketplace,” she said. “People shouldn't 
have to pay more for safety.”

There also are concerns that food sold at farmers markets and roadside 
stalls are not part of the program and remain at risk for contamination.

A package of bills sponsored by state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, would 
have regulated the leafy greens industry and shifted oversight to the state 
government, but it never cleared committee.

“Our approach would be a more mandatory program under the government,” he 
said. “But the legislators wanted to see if the (industry) program works.”

Last year's spinach E. coli flare-up was the 20th U.S. food-borne outbreak 
in the past 10 years of contaminated leafy greens products from California. 
The incident, which sickened people in 26 states, raised public 
consciousness about food safety.

Since then, lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants, fresh and frozen ground 
beef, and peanut butter have all been found to have been contaminated with 
either E. coli or salmonella, which can cause severe cramping, vomiting, 
bloody diarrhea and, in the worst cases, kidney failure.
The recent discoveries of tainted products from China, including toothpaste, 
dog food, juice and fish, have prompted calls for more stringent food-safety 
measures worldwide.

As the spotlight has lingered on food safety, backers of the Leafy Greens 
Marketing Agreement tout it as a model for global safety practices.

“Other industries in similar situations have taken years to come up with 
what these guys have come up with in a matter of months,” Chelling said.

Canada will limit entry of 14 leafy greens products from California to those 
handled under the marketing agreement.

The program goes further than the federal Hazard Analysis and Critical 
Control Point regulations, which focus mainly on good practices in packing, 
said Joe Pezzini, vice president of operations for Ocean Mist Farms in 
Castroville and chairman of the California Leafy Green Advisory Board.

“We believe this is an unprecedented commitment to food safety,” he said. 
“It created a mandatory level of standards in the industry. What it really 
does is raise the bar in food safety. There's never been anything like it.”

Another component of the agreement is a commitment to research. In addition 
to the 2-cent carton assessment, agricultural companies and the Produce 
Marketing Association are contributing millions to fund a food-safety 
research center at the University of California Davis to learn how microbes 
contaminate produce.

The Center for Produce Safety will be operating by this winter, said Rob 
Atwill, its interim director and one of the researchers who will pursue more 
answers about the deadly pathogens.
“It (E. coli) is a sneaky little bacteria, and it doesn't raise its head 
that often,” he said.
“In the next few years,” Atwill said, “we hope to close the knowledge gaps 
about how the pathogens enter the field of produce.”

In the meantime, lettuce and spinach consumers will rely on the measures 
mandated by the marketing agreement to protect them.

“We have characterized Monday as the start of a 'trust-me' program,” said 
Florez.
“At the end of the day, we will be watching very closely,” he said. “The 
industry knows that they are one outbreak away from people writing off leafy 
greens for a long time.”

Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist at uniontrib.com

Find this article at: 
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070722-9999-1b22leafy.html

Posted by Senator Dean Florez at 9:44 AM 1 comments

Will Bagged Leafy Greens be Safe?

Marler Blog
Posted at 3:45 AM on July 22, 2007 by E. coli Lawyer

Will Bagged Leafy Greens be Safe?

I was reading San Diego Union-Tribune writer, Diane Lindquist’s article: 
Keeping Greens Green - Industry-run program to improve food safety will 
begin tomorrow, about the hopeful use of the California Marketing Agreement 
as a way to prevent the next E. coli O157:H7 outbreak tied to California 
Leafy Greens, when I also spotted the following article by Richard Gray, 
Science Correspondent, of the UK Telegraph:

One in 10 salads has poisonous bacteria
Food safety experts are calling for stricter production controls on 
ready-to-eat salads after tests revealed that many contain bacteria, which 
can cause potentially deadly food poisoning.

A report compiled by the government's Health Protection Agency (HPA), found 
that one in 10 pre-packaged salads containing meat or seafood was 
contaminated with the listeria bacteria. Evidence of E. coli and salmonella 
was found in some bags of salad.

The HPA report, which involved testing more than 2,600 ready-to-eat salads, 
concluded that the control of bacteria in food manufacturing and in shops 
was essential to minimize the potential for hazardous food contamination.

Food poisoning due to contaminated salad is still rare. The HPA has recorded 
two notable outbreaks in the past two years, although only the most serious 
cases that result in hospitalization will be reported.

David Barney, from the Fresh Prepared Salad Producers Group, which 
represents the industry in the UK, said that the washing and preparation 
procedures used by producers removed far more bacteria than consumers could 
in their homes.

The UK pre-packed salad market is worth more than £300 million a year.

The Salinas Californian - Leafy greens audits begin Monday

Some legislators and consumer and labor advocates say the agreement is 
unlikely to offer consumers greater protection, however.

“Monday is about more of the same,” said state Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, 
who has so far failed in his attempts to pass legislation regulating the 
leafy greens industry. “Monday is cross-your-fingers day and hope nothing 
goes wrong.”

If anything, Florez said, the onset of the marketing agreement should remind 
consumers to protect themselves, because the industry continues to use a 
voluntary, self-policing system.
“I think consumers should be very afraid,” he said. “I think we want to make 
sure consumers know … that they need to protect themselves — wash your 
spinach, use good handling practices.”


Marler Clark LLP,
PS6600 Columbia Center
701 Fifth Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104
Phone: 866-770-2032

http://www.marlerblog.com/2007/07/articles/case-news/will-bagged-leafy-greens-be-safe/

Posted by Senator Dean Florez at 9:41 AM 0 comments