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[SANET-MG] two reports on the E coli outbreak in spinach



Salinas Californian
E. COLI PROBE FAILS TO SOLVE OUTBREAK
Paicines Ranch officially named as source
By DAWN WITHERS
The Salinas Californian

A report released Friday after seven months of investigation has officially identified the Central Coast ranch where E. coli bacteria contaminated spinach last fall, but it fails to show how the produce became tainted.

A small ranch in San Benito County was the likely source of the nationwide E. coli outbreak that killed three people and sickened more than 200 others, state and federal officials said Friday. Authorities with the California Department of Health Services and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - for the first time - said they had isolated the deadly E. coli strain to sources on Paicines Ranch near a field it leased to Mission Organics, a spinach grower.

Even with this revelation, federal and state health officials said during a teleconference they still don't know how the pathogens contaminated the spinach.

The most likely sources, however, are water or wild hogs, according to the report. Streams, which run through the ranch and carry manure from cattle, could have tainted the well water used for irrigation. The ranch also has a large population of feral pigs that could have spread contaminated feces, the report says.

Genetic matches were found between E. coli in Dole bagged spinach eaten by people who fell ill last August and September and the E. coli detected in 21 samples of soil and feces on or near the ranch.

The Paicines Ranch, which breeds Angus cattle and quarter horses, said in a statement on its Web site that it leases land to crop growers and was not under investigation in the outbreak. Ranch officials declined further comment.

The report indicates the contamination probably occurred in the Mission Organics-leased field during or just before harvest, but it goes on to say the bacteria probably was spread to other spinach during bagging and processing at Natural Selection's south processing plant in San Juan Bautista.

But the information does little to help industry leaders take specific action to protect their produce, even as spinach processors cope with a roughly 40 percent drop in bagged spinach sales from recent years, according to a Dole Food Co. representative.

Otto Kramm, chief operations officer for Mission Organics, said in a statement that his company "has cooperated fully" with the FDA and that it supports more research into food safety.

"The FDA report is helpful in narrowing the possible sources of the problem," Kramm said, "but its studies did not find the specific strain of E. coli that caused the outbreak in any of the fields where the spinach in question was grown."
Improvements mandated

Mission Organics can't sell spinach until state health authorities approve a new plan that shows they corrected their agricultural practices to minimize bacterial contamination, officials said during the morning teleconference. The company has said it's repairing broken fences around its fields, and the report cites groundwater issues on the ranch as a possible factor in spreading the E. coli. Mission Organic's spinach fields were in the second year of a three-year transition to organic production, officials said.

The report also identifies three other ranches where E. coli O157:H7 was found in the investigation, although the strain present there wasn't a genetic match to the E. coli that caused the outbreak.

The other three ranches were identified as Wickstrom Ranch in Aromas, Taix Ranch in Hollister and Eade Ranch south of San Lucas.

State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, a vocal critic of produce industry-led voluntary food safety guidelines, lambasted the report in a statement, saying none of the farms identified have been fined. He accused state and federal health officials of "relegating themselves to 'simple spectators' by reiterating recommendations made in the past and failing to provide an action plan."

Ranchers aren't happy with the report, either. The FDA should have provided each of the farms named in the report with a copy to prepare them for the flurry of media, industry and government scrutiny, said Jeff Gilles of Salinas-based Lombardo and Gilles, a law firm representing Kramm, especially because the report contains inaccuracies.

"It would have been in FDA's best interest to meet with farmers to review the report," Gilles said in an e-mail, "in order to correct certain information provided therein."

Bill Marler, a Seattle-based attorney representing 93 people sickened from the outbreak, said he will decide in the next few weeks whether to add the three other farms to his lawsuits, which already target Mission Organics.
Natural Selection criticized

Also already named in Marler's lawsuits are Dole Fresh Vegetables and Natural Selection Foods, which were targeted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation during visits to the companies last fall. In the report released Friday, investigators pay particular attention to Natural Selection's south facility - one of its two plants in San Juan Bautista - where the contaminated spinach was processed and bagged. It lays out numerous problems with the company's food safety program.

On Aug. 15, Natural Selection Foods processed the 13 bags of Dole baby spinach that tested positive for the outbreak strain type. A total 34 brands of fresh bagged spinach packaged at the facility were pulled from shelves when the FDA issued its Sept. 14 advisory not to eat such produce.

The report states that from Aug. 15 to 26, Natural Selection Foods didn't conduct its normal sanitation testing and that discrepancies occurred between sanitation schedules and the company's sanitation procedures on the frequency of cleaning for certain areas of the south facility.

"Information and documents obtained from NSF revealed the firm did not update or review (food safety) procedures ... already in use at the north facility prior to initiation of production at the south facility," the report said.

Additionally, starting Aug. 13 the company experienced almost a week of chronic labor shortages in its south facility for quality assurance testing and cleaning the facility.

Natural Selection Foods also operated the facility from April 1 to Sept. 15 last year without a license from the California Department of Health Services.

Replying to questions, Natural Selection Foods' spokeswoman Samantha Cabaluna said the company's "commitment to food safety is unwavering, and we are taking an aggressive stance on the issue."

The company also hasn't thoroughly vetted the report, Cabaluna said.

The statement also highlighted the company's overhauled food safety program, which it said includes "multiple barriers and extensive pathogen-specific testing" for both its growers and processing facility.

"We believe our salads are safer than ever before," it says.
Report will help

Although the evidence from the spinach outbreak points to one crop, food safety investigators call the problem of contamination multifaceted, complicated and unable to be pinpointed to just one source.

But the report's findings, as well as information gathered at two public hearings, will help the FDA find ways to prevent future outbreaks, said David Acheson, the FDA's chief medical officer and head of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

"There is a need for uniform application of good agricultural practices and good manufacturing practices," Acheson said, "because without them, clearly the potential for illness associated with leafy greens is still there."

Produce-related illnesses are a rising problem, with 72 outbreaks in the past 10 years associated with fresh fruits and vegetables. Leafy greens have been blamed in 22 outbreaks, followed by tomatoes and melons.

While it's impossible to completely eliminate the risk of E. coli contamination in leafy greens, said Kevin Reilly, deputy director of prevention services for the state Health Department, the report points to ways to reduce risk factors through proper food safety practices.

"If we can put into place good agricultural practices on the farm level on every field to reduce the risk, then we can manage the risk and prevent food borne illnesses," Reilly said.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and LOS ANGELES TIMES contributed to this report.
Contact Dawn Withers at withers@thecalifornian.com.
E. coli that tainted spinach traced to San Benito County cattle ranch
By Brandon Bailey
San Jose Mercury News
Article Launched:03/23/2007 09:07:17 AM PDT
The spinach responsible for last fall's nationwide outbreak of illness and death was likely grown by a company called Mission Organics on a ranch in San Benito County, state and federal officials said today.

As reported by the Mercury News earlier this week, officials said they weren't able to determine exactly how the spinach became contaminated, despite an unprecedented six-month investigation.

But they said samples taken from manure, water and a dead pig found on the ranch were an exact genetic match to the deadly strain of E. coli bacteria that killed at least three people and sickened more than 200 others.

Any of those sources could have led to the contamination, said Dean Cliver, a microbiologist and professor of food safety at the University of California, Davis.

State and federal health officials issued their report this morning and planned to discuss it at a news conference later today.

An attorney for Mission Organics, a Hollister company that grew the spinach, has previously said the company doesn't believe it was responsible for the outbreak. The company has been named in a lawsuit filed by an attorney representing dozens of people who became sick, but health officials have not confirmed the name before today.

But health investigators said they traced the contaminated batch of bagged spinach, which was sold under the Dole label, to one batch processed by Natural Selection Foods of San Juan Bautista. The spinach in that batch came from four farms in the area.

Investigators found traces of deadly E. coli O157:H7 bacteria at all four farms, but only the samples from the Mission Organics site were an exact genetic match to the strain implicated in the outbreak.

While E. coli is often found in the intestinal tracts of cows and can be transmitted through their manure, investigators will probably never know exactly how the bacteria got onto the spinach, according to Dr. David Acheson, a top food-safety official for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

However, investigators have theorized that the bacteria could have been spread by a cow or pig that wandered through the field, or through contaminated irrigation water.

The field is part of the Paicines Ranch, a large property that is primarily used to raise cattle. Owners of the ranch have said they are not responsible for any crops grown by companies that lease portions of the ranch.

The final investigation report can be viewed at: http://www.dhs.ca.gov

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