Guidance and Stricter Enforcement, NOW

Processing: The penultimate step to the consumer, processing and storage is where pro-active preventive measures should be in place and verified.

Transportation: Clean transportation and temperature control for fresh and processed produce is essential.

Safe Handling Labeling: Generic safe handling labeling/instructions should be mandatory on all packaged fruits and vegetables as well as signs depicting safe handling at the home that are posted at all supermarkets and other produce outlets.

Trace-back Accountability: Processors should mark packaging to ensure easy trace back when fruits and vegetables are implicated in an outbreak. Information gained from a trace back investigation can limit the impact of an outbreak of foodborne illness and help to identify and eliminate conditions that may have contributed to product contamination.

Another big factor is that the majority of farm workers are immigrants who have had very little if any training with regards to hygiene and food safety. Add in the high seasonal turnover rates that affects this segment of the food industry as well. Also in the formula is the exposure of the product that is derived from the soil compounded with pesticide spraying, (chemical hazards), and free roaming vectors in the guise of mammals and flying birds, which connotes to biological hazards involving E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella to name a few.

Every microbiologist that I have talked to over the years have always emphasized to me that if you want to find pathogens forget about the meat and go to your local salad bar. How many E. coli incidences involving hamburgers may have been from the lettuce or tomatoes rather than the meat? Restaurants and retail outlets employ untrained workers who handle such products with zero training, knowledge or skills involving food safety.

This area of the food safety continuum is ripe for mishandling and cross-contamination.

The end user, the consumer, needs to be better educated and made aware of the dangers of fresh produce. Consumers certainly have a responsibility to handle these products in a responsible manner. It is not uncommon for cross-contamination to occur at home. In addition, there is a prevailing false assumption by consumers that the fresh produce that they buy has been properly cleaned. Unless cooking is involved, the consumer is presently vulnerable to pathogens in their produce. Again, pathogen outbreaks involving fresh produce will only continue until there is established enforceable state and federal laws that are verified by assigned governmental inspectors who have invested in them the authority to close violators of food safety regulations. All imports of produce must also abide to the same food safety regulations of domestic growers. The USDA considers E. coli O157:H7 as an adulterant in meat and poultry products with the attached label of, Zero Tolerance. The same should apply to fresh produce.

Steve Sayer is a 25-year- veteran of the beef industry and food safety for S and R Consulting (Aliso Viejo, Calif.). Reach him at [email protected].