Another consideration EU lawmakers considered was the higher risk of bacterial infection in meat products created with thrombin, due to the larger surface area of meat and the cold bonding process that is used.

The decision not to authorize meat glue as an additive rejects an earlier European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) positive safety opinion on the use of ‘meat glue’ in 2005.

Meat glue is an enzyme composed of thrombin and fibrogen, obtained from blood plasma. It can be used by the meat industry as a food additive for reconstituting fresh meat to create a product of desirable size and form. The method can also be applied to poultry, fish and seafood.

The Parliament estimated that there is “a clear risk that meat containing thrombin would find its way into meat products served in restaurants or other public establishments serving food, given the higher prices that can be obtained for pieces of meat served as a single meat product”.

Some lawmakers stressed that meat glue had been declared safe and was already used in some countries.

Meanwhile, others said that “consumers in Europe should be able to trust that they are buying a real steak or ham, not pieces of meat that have been glued together,” and “beyond this specific case, the European Parliament has sent a political message to the Commission defending transparency towards the consumer and refusing to accept poor quality food”.

Now that Congress has reached a conclusion on Wall Street reform, many lawmakers are calling for the passage of S. 510, citing recent foodborne illness outbreaks to underscore the need for a revamped food safety system.

Last Wednesday, May 19, Congressman John Dingell (D-MI), author of the House companion bill on food safety reform, held a telebriefing conference to discuss the recent E. coli outbreak and the need for swift passage of the S. 510.

Specifically, Congressman Dingell said the recent E. coli O145 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, which has sickened 33 people in five states, was caused by an inadequate level of FDA oversight. S. 510, he asserted, would limit outbreaks like this in the future.  

“FDA needs the proper resources and authority to maintain proper checks on the food supply,” he said, explaining how provisions in the legislation would expand the power of FDA and its inspectors.

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), a well-known food safety advocate within the House, also urged the Senate to pass the Food Safety Modernization Act in a separate public statement last week.  

“The American people continue to be at risk from dangerous outbreaks while critical food safety reform legislation, which includes provisions that would be helpful in addressing a widespread outbreak through preventive controls and interventions, remains stalled in the Senate, Congresswoman DeLauro said Friday. “I urge the Senate to act quickly before more people become victims of contaminated food and our faulty food safety system–the longer the food safety bill is delayed, the more vulnerable our food safety system remains.”

Those working to pass the legislation say the Senate bill will be brought to a vote before the Memorial Day recess, but nothing is certain at this point.         

“Continued outbreaks of foodborne illness over the last several years–from spinach to peppers to peanuts–have demonstrated that these outbreaks are not random, unpreventable occurrences, but are due to widespread problems with the nation’s food-safety system,” Congressman Dingell said last week. “U.S. food safety oversight is broken and has been in need of reform for decades. This year, Congress has the opportunity to change course and help protect children, families, senior citizens, and all others from foodborne illness.”    

Within the last few years, food growers and producers have begun to use a novel means of improving food safety through the use of bacteriophages. Also known as lytic viruses or phages, bacteriophages take up residence inside certain strains of foodborne bacteria, begin multiplying, and eventually destroy the bacterial cell.
 
The consensus among microbiologists is that phages do not have any known adverse effects on humans, animals, or the environment, and in fact gravitate toward wherever bacteria live, including the human body, water, and the environment.
 
For this reason, many scientists and food safety experts predict that bacteriophages could become a useful tool in the reduction of dangerous pathogens in beef, cold cuts, produce, and more.

Manan Sharma, a Research Microbiologist for the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), has conducted phage tests on a variety of produce and has concluded that phage treatments could be effective in killing E. coli O157:H7 in a produce commodity. “The treatments reduced pathogens on the samples of fresh-cut cantaloupe by 100-fold over untreated controls,” said Sharma in a USDA release.

Sharma’s test studies also found that phages could have an equally potent effect on refrigerated fresh-cut lettuce, the source of a current E. coli O145 outbreak that has sickened 30 people in 23 states.
 
“The results indicate that bacteriophage treatments can kill E. coli O157:H7 on the surface of leafy greens at the same levels as on the fresh-cut cantaloupe,” he said.

Biotechnology companies have long pressed for the use of bacteriophages in the public food supply, but the federal government has so far allowed the use of only two products.

In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a bacteriophage mixture, called a “lytic cocktail,” in a spray-on form designed to reduce the presence of Listeria monocytogenes bacteria in meat and deli products.

Then in 2007, the USDA approved a bacteriophage product that OmniLytics Company designed to be sprayed, misted, or washed onto cattle hides to reduce the presence of E. coli bacteria.

“It’s a good sign that FDA has approved phage-based products for use recently,” Sharma told Food Safety News.  “I think that bacteriophages–and their derived products, like enzymes that attack bacterial cells walls–can be an effective intervention against foodborne pathogens.”
 
Some microbiologists, however, are concerned that the widespread use of bacteriophages in the food supply could result in an increased resistance of bacteria to phage treatment.
 
Sharma, however, believes the “cocktail” of bacteriophages administered simultaneously to food products is varied enough to prevent a resistance build-up in targeted bacteria.

“Most scientists believe that using multiple phages specific for a pathogen in a “cocktail” helps address this concern,” he said. “This way if bacterial strains become resistant to one phage, there are still multiple phages to which they remain sensitive.  Unlike with antibiotics, bacteria and bacteriophages are constantly evolving, so there is always the likelihood that a lytic phage can be identified against foodborne pathogens.”

“I think in the right setting, bacteriophages can be extremely effective,” he continued. “We have shown that bacteriophages can kill E. coli O157:H7 on the surface of cut lettuce within one hour. Others have shown their effectiveness on produce and meats. Bacteriophages are naturally present in a variety of foods, so I think there is a very strong likelihood that more lytic phages for specific pathogens could be identified relatively easily.”

Photo:  The bacteriophage T4 is preparing to infect its host cell. The structure of bacteriophage T4 is derived from three-dimensional cryo-electron microscopy reconstructions of the baseplate, tail sheath and head capsid, as well as from crystallographic analyses of various phage components. The baseplate and tail proteins are shown in distinct colors.  Accessed from the National Science Foundation Website.  Credit: Purdue University and Seyet LLC. The animation is based on both recent discoveries and extensive earlier work by a large number of investigators. 

The Utah Department of Health also confirmed Sunday that raw milk was suspected in another, unrelated outbreak, this time involving Campylobacter.  So far, nine people have been sickened in Weber, Davis and Cache Counties.  All of the victims reported drinking raw milk (unpasteurized milk) purchased at local vendors licensed to sell raw milk in the State of Utah. 

According to Utah health officials, coliform testing done on milk from the dairy involved in the outbreak came back high for coliform counts.  High coliform counts may be linked to the presence of disease-causing pathogens, such as Campylobacter, in the milk.

Julia Hall, a spokeswoman for the Utah Department of Health, confirmed that Ropelato Dairy was the source of the Campylobacter outbreak. She told Food Safety News that further tests are being conducted on the milk, and the dairy has not yet been authorized to resume selling raw milk.  

Bob Ropelato, co-owner of Ropelato Dairy, told the Standard-Examiner Monday that he stopped selling raw milk after hearing of one person getting sick.  Ropelato confirmed the dairy is not currently selling raw milk, and in fact may discontinue the sale of raw milk at Ropelato Dairy altogether.  

The reason he sold it in the first place, Ropelato said, was that many of his customers believe raw milk is more nutritious than pasteurized milk so the demand was there to provide it.

But Glen Kinney, Weber-Morgan Health Department epidemiologist, disagreed.

“Pasteurization, or heating the milk to kill bacteria, destroys no more enzymes or proteins than stomach acid does,” he said.    

According to a press release issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it was determined that the recalled Amish Wedding products had a pH and water activity level that was too high and was considered a possible health hazard. With these high levels, FDA concluded that the products presented a dangerous environment that could support Clostridium botulinum growth, which can lead to botulism.

Symptoms of botulism usually begin within 36 hours, and they include vertigo, weakness and general fatigue. Following these symptoms a person may experience double vision, difficulty swallowing, and speaking. Some may experience muscle weakness, abdominal distention, constipation and trouble breathing.

In addition to North Carolina, the sweet potato butter and pumpkin butter were sold to retailers and distributors in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texan, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.
 
Products may be returned to the place of purchase for a refund. Anyone with questions about the Amish Wedding Foods, Inc. products that were recalled may contact Luke Stutzman at (330) 674-9199. He is available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. until 2:30 p.m.

The study, published yesterday in Pediatrics journal, analyzed the levels of pesticide residue in the urine of 1,100 children ages eight to 15. Children with the highest levels of pesticides, the study found, had the highest incidence of ADHD, which affects about 4.5 million children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But even children who had any detectable, above-average level of pesticide residue in their urine were twice as likely to develop ADHD as those with undetectable levels.

“I was quite surprised to see an effect at lower levels of exposure,” said Maryse Bouchard of the University of Montreal, who led the study in conjunction with researchers from Harvard University.

Although the study did not determine where the pesticide exposure originated, experts from the National Academy of Sciences noted that children are most likely to ingest chemicals through their diet. And organophosphate pesticides are found in a variety of produce, including frozen blueberries, strawberries, and celery.

“Organophosphates are one of the most widely used pesticides in agriculture to protect crops and fruits and vegetables,” Bouchard said. “For children, the major source of exposure would be the diet–fruits and vegetables in particular.”
 
However, Bouchard was clear that the results of her study were merely associative, and did not indicate a direct causal link between pesticide exposure and ADHD.

The author also emphasized the importance of fruits and vegetables in children’s diets. Instead, she affirmed the study’s focus was on an unhealthy exposure to pesticides, and in fact raises the possibility of setting a national threshold for safe levels of exposure.

“I think it’s safe to say that we should as much as possible reduce our exposure to pesticides,” she concluded. According to Bouchard, the best way to avoid unhealthy exposure is to eat produce grown organically.

A 2008 Emory University study found that in children who switched to organically grown fruits and vegetables, urine levels of pesticide compounds dropped to undetectable or close to undetectable levels.

Some experts, however, cautioned against the possible misinterpretation of yesterday’s study. 

“This study could be counterproductive to children’s health,” Tom Stenzel , President and CEO of United Fresh Produce Association, said in a press release. “U.S. health authorities recommend that Americans actually need to double their consumption of fruits and vegetables to protect their health. We must be extremely careful not to frighten consumers away from following that overriding health advice.”    

But others praised the study as innovative and insightful.

“We are fortunate studies like this one advance a very important discussion,” Robyn O’Brien, author and food safety expert, told Food Safety News. “And that is why we have not exercised precaution and attempted to reduce our children’s exposure to these chemicals as has been done in other developed countries, placing the same value on the lives of the American children that has already been placed on the lives of children around the world.”

The compliance guide discusses several known practices for pre-harvest management to reduce E. coli contamination in cattle and focuses on the prevention of E. coli O157:H7 through reduced fecal shedding on the farm and during live animal holding before slaughter.
 
Specifically, the compliance guide suggests that pre-harvest interventions, such as treating cattle drinking water sources with chlorine and replacing grain with hay as the primary source of cattle feed have the potential to be effective in reducing fecal shedding in cattle.

The compliance guide also found vaccines and certain probiotcs and antibiotics to be potentially helpful in reducing dangerous pathogens in fecal shedding.
  
FSIS is seeking comments from the public on the compliance guides and expects to begin implementing the findings after analyzing the comments and, if necessary, making any adjustments.
 

“Preventing foodborne illness is the core mission of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and today’s announcement will help us reduce the incidence of Salmonella and Campylobacter,” said Jerold Mande, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, on May 11. “We welcome comments on today’s announcement.”

Comments regarding the compliance guides document must be received within the 60 day comment period through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at http://www.regulations.gov, or by mail to: Docket Clerk, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Room 2-2127, George Washington Carver Center, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Mailstop 5474, Beltsville, MD 20705-5474. All submissions received through the Federal eRulemaking Portal or by mail must reference the Food Safety and Inspection Service and include the docket number “FSIS-2009-0034.”

Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah reported Friday that health officials found a strain of Salmonella called Newport in several Real Foods raw milk samples. The Utah Department of Agriculture is still trying to determine how the milk became contaminated.

The same news source also reported that new milk produced by the same company has tested clean for the bacteria, and the milk is back on store shelves after a two-week absence.

Advocates of raw milk say it is more nutritious, tastes better, and is no more harmful than pasteurized milk.

But many experts, including government officials and scientists, warn that it can sicken or even kill you. Raw milk potentially contains a wide variety of harmful bacteria – including Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, Campylobacter and Brucella – that may cause illness and possibly death.

For more information on raw milk, visit www.realrawmilkfacts.com.

As of May 11, 2010, there are 23 confirmed and 7 probable cases related to this outbreak from Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Tennessee. The number of ill persons identified in each state with this strain is: Michigan (10 confirmed and 3 probable), New York (4 confirmed and 3 probable), Ohio (8 confirmed and 1 probable), and Tennessee (1 confirmed).  

To diagram the outbreak trend, the CDC has created an epidemic curve, or a chart that describes the number of persons that became ill each day.

Among the confirmed and probable cases with reported dates available, illnesses began between April 10, 2010 and April 26, 2010. Infected individuals range in age from 13 years old to 31 years old and the median age is 19 years. Sixty-six percent of patients are male.

Health investigators in New York recently obtained an E. coli O145 isolate from an unopened bag of romaine lettuce that matches the outbreak strain.
 
A separate case-control study in Michigan supported this, finding a significant association between illness and consumption of romaine lettuce from the same processing facility, which is believed to be located in Yuma, AZ.

The CDC said that investigators are using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), a type of DNA fingerprint analysis of E. coli bacteria obtained through diagnostic testing to identify cases of illness that might be part of this outbreak. This testing is done in public health laboratories as part of the PulseNet network. Investigators have established a common definition of confirmed and probable cases related to this outbreak.

An Ohio resident filed an E. coli lawsuit against Freshway Foods on Tuesday.



As state and federal public health officials continue to investigate the E. coli O145 outbreak tied to bagged Freshway Foods romaine lettuce, which has sickened at least 23 people in 4 states, many questions remain.



The supply chain from the field to the supermarket is a long one, with many potential points along the way for contamination to occur. Where did the lettuce pick up E. coli O145, a pathogen found primarily in cattle and wildlife feces? According to the latest out of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), investigators are focusing on an undisclosed farm in Yuma, Arizona which could be linked to the outbreak. If the contamination did occur on the farm, how could it have happened?



Unlike Salinas Valley, America’s salad bowl, which has been the source of several E. coli outbreaks, including the Dole spinach outbreak in 2006, Yuma-grown leafy greens have never been implicated.



Food Safety News paid a visit to the Yuma area and talked with epidemiological experts to explore a number of hypotheses. This series will look at three ways the E. coli O145-contaminated lettuce–if it was grown in Yuma–could have picked up the bug. Part I explored dust and mud as possible modes of contamination. Yesterday, Part II looked at wildlife intrusions, and today, Part III will discuss irrigation water.



Part III – Irrigation Water



It takes between 40 and 50 inches of water per acre to produce a desirable lettuce crop, according to the University of Arizona’s Cooperative Extension. The fields in Yuma depend on a network of open canals that channel water from the Colorado River to provide adequate water for growing greens in the desert.

As we noted yesterday, one of the largest cattle feedlots in the country is located in Wellton, AZ, around 20 miles, as the crow flies, (and downstream) from the heart of leafy green production in the Gila and Dome Valleys near Yuma. (At left: irrigation canal with Wellton feedlot in the backdrop).

Naturally, the high concentration of cattle and manure produces a fecal, muddy mix in which E. coli bacteria can thrive. As we discussed in Part I and Part II, that mud or mud-turned-dust can travel via wind, vehicle, person, or wild animal. It is possible that one of these modes of transmission could contaminate irrigation water headed for a leafy green field.

Irrigation water has long been recognized by food safety scientists as one of the most plausible and probable sources of fresh produce pathogenic contamination, especially in states like Arizona that use irrigation to manage essentially all crop production.
 
In 1996, cattle in an adjacent field were implicated as the source of E. coli O157:H7 during a multi-state outbreak associated with the consumption of lettuce. Investigators speculated that contaminated water was used to irrigate the lettuce fields.

A 2002 study done by the Department of Food Sciences at Rutgers University concluded that “E. coli can survive for extended periods in water, and lettuce irrigated with contaminated water results in contamination of the edible portion of the lettuce plant.”
  
Trevor Suslow, who is an Extension Research Specialist for the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, issued a report for the Produce Safety Project in 2009 detailing the potential risk of using irrigation water to treat produce fields.
   
For one, there are no federal standards in the United States for irrigation quality.
“FDA provides no specifics, critical limits, or metrics based on indicators or pathogen prevalence in a standardized sample volume of any size,” he wrote. “Producers are held to self-determination of the broadly applicable position that water should be ‘of appropriate quality for its intended source, or treating and testing water on a regular basis and as needed to ensure appropriate quality.'”

“In most cases,” he continued, “the microbiological quality of surface water used for irrigation is not known because it is not tested in any meaningful frequency.”

The problem, according to Suslow, is compounded by a lack of existing research on irrigation quality. And of the existing studies on irrigation safety, most are concerned primarily with chemical rather than microbiological questions.
 
“As a result,” he concluded, “the knowledge gap regarding sanitary quality of irrigation waters is nationwide.”

During the 2006 E. coli O157:H7 outbreak traced to contaminated spinach, irrigation water was considered as a possible source of contamination.

The leafy greens industry is still feeling the repercussions of 2006 spinach outbreak, as sales of packaged salad remain impacted, hovering around 20 percent below prior periods. The current E. coli O145 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce is certainly not improving the industry’s prospects, and is at risk of further alienating consumers by withholding the plant facility where the outbreak originated.
 
The 2006 spinach outbreak, though, accelerated efforts of produce industry leaders to define practical and meaningful prevention practices and standardized safety criteria.

Leafy green marketing agreements aimed at food safety have been established in California and Arizona, and the industry is seeking to expand nationwide.
 
As Arnott Duncan, a grower and committee member for the Arizona Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (AZLGMA) explained to Food Safety News in an interview, water testing is a key ingredient in the program.
 
“Everyone tests their water,” said Duncan. “It’s a big concern.”

“If you pull a positive, it could mean holding product on the farm,” he added.
 
States like California and Arizona have also begun to test more regularly for irrigation quality. However, the overwhelming majority of this database is privately and tightly held. Food Safety News was largely unsuccessful in its attempts to contact water officials in the Yuma, AZ area.

“There is a need for a bit of in-depth reporting on surface irrigation water,” said Dale Hancock, an epidemiologist and field disease investigator at Washington State University. “Irrigation water and dust would be among the usual suspects.”

Helena Bottemiller co-wrote and contributed to the research for this article. Pictured: Top: Open irrigation canal with the feed towers for the feedlot in Wellton in the background. Bottom: Irrigation canal in Dome Valley. Photos by Bottemiller.
 

Since April 28, 14 people have reported E. coli-like symptoms.

According to a press release from the Missouri Health Department, officials with the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center tested water from a drinking fountain and a faucet within the facility and confirmed the presence of E. coli in both samples. The sports complex, which is served by a private well, shut off its water last Thursday at the urging of local health officials.

The owner of the fitness center, Shawn McNally, believes the complex well was infected with bacteria during rainstorms last month. McNally said he has added chlorine to the well and is installing a chlorinator. Until the water is deemed safe, he has agreed not to provide drinking water from the facility, and he has sent emails and made phone calls to his clients.

“The safety of the kids is the No. 1 concern,” he told the Southeast Missourian. “I, my wife and our four daughters live here and we drink the water every day, so obviously we have to make sure the water is good for ourselves and our family members.”

Further testing is being done to confirm that it is the same strain that caused the illnesses.

As state and federal public health officials continue to investigate the E. coli O145 outbreak tied to bagged Freshway Foods romaine lettuce, which has sickened 19 in 3 states, many questions remain.

The supply chain from the field to the supermarket is a long one, with many potential points along the way for contamination to occur. Where did the lettuce pick up E. coli O145, a pathogen found primarily in cattle and wildlife feces? According to the latest out of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), investigators are focusing on an undisclosed farm in Yuma, Arizona which could be linked to the outbreak. If the contamination did occur on the farm, how could it have happened?

Unlike Salinas Valley, America’s salad bowl, which has been the source of several E. coli outbreaks, including the Dole spinach outbreak in 2006 (pdf), Yuma-grown leafy greens have never been implicated.

Food Safety News paid a visit to the Yuma area and talked with epidemiological experts to explore a number of hypotheses. This series will look at three ways the E. coli O145-contaminated lettuce–if it was grown in Yuma–could have picked up the bug. Part I will explore dust and mud contamination, Part II will look at wildlife intrusions, and Part III will discuss irrigation water.

Part I – Dust, Mud, and E. coli

One of the largest cattle feedlots in the country is found in Wellton, AZ, around 20 miles, as the crow flies, from the heart of leafy green production in the Gila and Dome Valleys near Yuma. Naturally, the high concentration of cattle and manure produces a fecal, muddy mix in which E. coli bacteria can thrive. In a dry, windy environment like Yuma, mud-turned-dust can carry E. coli.

Most food safety experts agree that dust is a prime suspect in pathogenic produce contamination.

A study conducted in 2002 by researchers at Texas Tech University found that some common feeding practices were leading to a higher likelihood of dust-borne bacteria.

“A standard feeding practice in some western feedlots is to feed at sunrise. This protocol results in cattle that have digested their food by the evening, which coincides with the active, dust-generating period,” the study discovered, leading the researchers to conclude that “airborne transmission could be a primary route of infection.”
 
History supports the dust-borne hypothesis.

In September 2001, Ohio health officials identified a cluster of E. coli O157 infections at a fair in Lorain County, Ohio. A series of studies linked the outbreak to a large, open building that was used throughout the fair for animal shows. The building’s floor was covered with sawdust, and on the last night of the fair, a large dance was held in the same building. Investigators concluded that an animal from an earlier show, most likely a cow, defecated on the ground, and the sawdust kicked up by other animals and humans contaminated nearly the entire building.

One report found this: “E. coli O157 survived and possibly multiplied in the sawdust. The sawdust may have become airborne during a large event such as the dance. Individuals who touched contaminated surfaces in the building became infected when they ate or drank without adequately washing their hands. It is possible that some may have swallowed bacteria that landed directly into their mouths or onto their food or drink.”

Again, one year later, air-borne E. coli was cited as the probable origin of an outbreak.

In 2002, an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 sickened 82 people at an Oregon county fair, the largest E. coli outbreak in Oregon state history. Although not confirmed, health officials postulated that possible exposures leading to the outbreak occurred at animal enclosures, including the cattle tent, horse barn, and exposition halls that housed goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens, ducks, and guinea pigs.

Investigators eventually traced the transmission path of the E. coli O157:H7 bacteria to pipes 15 feet above goat pens in a fair exhibition hall, where about 75 people, including 12 children, were believed to have been infected, leading them to believe the toxins were spread through the air.

Judging from these examples, it is clear how fecal bacteria from a cattle farm’s manure pit could spread from feedlot to produce farm, especially in a dusty, highly windy environment like that of Yuma.

However, Michele Jay-Russell, a veterinarian and food safety specialist with the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security at the University of California, Davis, sounded doubtful about air-borne transmission in the Freshway E. coli O145 outbreak, citing the distance between feedlots and produce farms as a potential barrier.

“With that distance, it would be a stretch biologically,” she said. “It would probably be more than just wind.” Instead, she mentioned vehicles and clothing as possible carriers.

“But,” she added, “It’s certainly on the list of possibilities.”

Helena Bottemiller co-wrote and contributed to the research for this article. Pictured: Cattle feedlot outside of Wellton, AZ. Photo by Bottemiller.    

One day later, on May 7, a California company recalled about 1,000 cartons of produce because of potential E. coli O145 contamination. The cartons went to two customers who then processed the lettuce before sending it on to food-service establishments. The total amount of recalled romaine that could have been already consumed or sold to restaurants and others in food service has been estimated at about 23,000 pounds.

In the wake of the Freshway Foods E. coli O145 outbreak in romaine lettuce, some affected states began widespread testing of romaine samples. A laboratory in Ohio found another strain of E. coli which led to a very private recall on Friday by Andrew Smith Co., The Packer reported yesterday.

However, a spokeswoman for Andrew Smith Co. in Spreckels, Calif., said none of the lettuce was sold in grocery stores and that only two food processors bought the cartons. Although Freshway Foods is a customer of Andrew Smith, health officials determined that the two E. coli O145 recalls are unrelated.

“It was a precautionary measure,” said Spokeswoman Amy Philpott about the recall.

Andrew Smith Co. decided to recall the entire lot of romaine, which was sourced from Yuma, Arizona, Philpott said, even though no tests at the Yuma ranch or tests carried out by Andrew Smith Co. showed any indications of further bacterial contamination.

Ohio Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Kaleigh Frazier said tests at the Ohio lab showed that the E. coli was not the specific type of O145 implicated in the outbreak which has been traced to a still unnamed farm in Yuma. The positive test was performed on an unopened bag of Freshway Foods romaine shredded lettuce with a sell-by date of May 10, she said.

The Ohio Department of Health is sending the samples to federal officials for further testing.

The slaughterhouse, which is owned by Idaho-based AgriBeef Co., is located on the Yakima Indian Reservation, and is thus under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA began investigating the plant in 2008 after reviewing discharge reports.

In response, the Justice Department filed a complaint alleging that Washington Beef “discharged partially treated slaughterhouse wastes into nearby waterways without a permit and exceeded the level of pollutants allowed by its permit on numerous occasions.”
 
At one point, EPA officials said, contaminants exceeded federal standards by 160 times.

Rick Stott, Agri Beef executive vice president, said wastewater went through the plant’s treatment system and into a series of constructed wetlands. Between 500,000-700,000 gallons per day then went to the irrigation system to be applied to farmer’s fields in the arid Yakima Valley and had no detrimental water quality impact.

In compliance with a federal decree filed in U.S. District Court, Washington Beef will install five new pieces of equipment, including a new sequential batch reactor — a large concrete basin equipped with aerators in which bacteria break down organic pollutants from the slaughterhouse — that will “greatly increase the treatment capacity at the plant,” the agencies said.
 
The company has also recently obtained a permit for all of its discharges, and is currently meeting its permit limits. According to the EPA, the new equipment the Washington Beef is installing should help ensure future compliance with the Clean Water Act.

The focus of this hearing, however, was on two government reports issued by the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office (GAO), respectively, addressing various deficiencies in the nation’s food safety system. The hearing also discussed potential legislative remedies, such as the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which is languishing in the Senate behind the financial services bill.  

The GAO’s report, which was published in September 2009, identified several gaps in FDA’s oversight of imported foods. For instance, the report found that although 50 percent of produce and 80 percent of seafood in America is imported, FDA is largely without the means to punish foreign importers who may violate U.S. safety regulations. Moreover, FDA’s lack of collaboration with other government agencies, such as the Customs and Border Protection (CMB), could significantly increase the risk of unsafe food entering U.S. commerce without FDA review.

Present at the hearing was Lisa Shames, director of GAO’s investigative report. At the urging of several Congressmen, including Chairman Bart Stupak (D-MI), ranking member Michael Burgess (R-TX) and John Dingell (D-MI), Shames offered several recommendations. First, she said, FDA needs authority from Congress to assess civil penalties on firms and persons who violate FDA’s food safety laws.  In addition, she said, the FDA Commissioner should reach out to states and other agencies, such as the CMB, to find opportunities for additional collaboration through contracts, cooperative agreements, and informal partnerships. The power of FDA to issue mandatory recalls, she said, is also crucial.  

“All of these measures are contained within the Food Safety bill passed by the House in July,” she told the panel of Congressmen, saying later that “its passage would go a long way towards ensuring food safety.”

The second report (pdf), completed in April 2010 by the Office of the Inspector General, was equally adamant about the need to expand FDA’s oversight powers, but emphasized domestic facilities instead of importers.

“More than half of food facilities regulated by FDA went 5 years or more without inspections,” testified Jodi Nudelman, Regional Inspector General for Evaluations and Inspections, at the hearing. “And while the number of food facilities has increased over the last 5 years, FDA inspection has gone down.”

Nudelman, too, indicated the importance of extending mandatory recall power to the FDA. She also stressed the importance of not only inspecting food facilities, but following inspections with regular check-ups to guarantee corrections are made.

Michael R. Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for the newly created Office of Foods, also testified at the hearing and reiterated the importance of passing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.

“More inspections would help, but we also need to build more accountability throughout the supply chain,” he said. “This bill would ensure that.”

“We need the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act,” he concluded. 

The Supreme Court rulings, which were issued in 2001 and 2006, impair the ability of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enforce the Clean Water Act on wetlands, streams, and ponds that are not part of a major “navigable” waterway.

“These rulings ignore everything we have learned about water pollution and wetland conservation,” the Congressman said. “You have to control pollution at its source. If you wait until it hits a major waterway, it is too late to deal with the problem effectively.”

The aim is to restore the broad authority of the original Clean Water Act passed in 1972. “There were no limits on the number of streams, lakes, or shorelines to be protected,” the Congressman said of the original version. “It just said ‘waters of the United States.'”

To do this, the bill would delete the term “navigable” from the Clean Water Act, and would use the definition of “waters of the United States” that closely follows the definition used successfully by the EPA before the 2001 ruling.

“Simply put, if it was not regulated before 2001, it will not be regulated with the enactment of this legislation,” he said.

The new legislation would also help stop the draining of wetlands across the country.  “You only have to look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and the flooding on the Mississippi River in the mid 1990s to see how wetlands protect us, holding back flood waters,” said Oberstar.  “Wetlands also filter ground water and allow it to recharge aquifers.  The Ogallala Aquifer provides water to eight states from Nebraska to Texas, but many of the wetlands that filter and recharge it have lost their protection due to these Supreme Court rulings.” 

According to Oberstar, the legislation will not create onerous or new rules; it will simply reaffirm the original intent of Congress when it passed the Clean Water Act in 1972.

Michigan and Ohio are currently investigating at least 13 E. coli illnesses that have been reported since mid-April, all of which are genetically indistinguishable strains of E. coli O145.

The outbreak, which was first discovered by officials in Washtenaw County, Michigan, has now spread to Columbus-area residents, including several students from Ohio State University. The source is believed to be a yet unnamed Washtenaw County Mexican restaurant.

In addition, eleven inmates at Four Mile Correctional Center may be ill with E. coli O111 infections. Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said three cases have been confirmed, with eight more suspected.

These recent outbreaks are far from the first of their kind. E. coli O145 was one of the strains involved in the 2006 Spinach outbreak which sickened hundreds. Although most victims of the outbreak were infected with E. coli O157:H7, O145 was the strain that eventually led to the death of June Dunning.  In August 2008, an outbreak of E. coli O111 linked to Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove, Oklahoma sickened 341 people and hospitalized 70. 17 of those hospitalized required dialysis because of kidney failure, and one man died.

The danger of non-O157 STECs have caused many members of the food safety community, including experts and public figures, to call for the an expansion of existing law that would require meat producers test for potentially deadly non-O157 pathogens.

On October 5, 2009, the food safety law firm Marler Clark submitted a petition to the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to declare all non-O157 STECs as adulterants in ground beef and other USDA-regulated products.  E. coli O157:H7 already is listed as an adulterant.  The designation would allow FSIS to test food for any strain of E. coli and seek a recall if food is found contaminated.

Yesterday, as Food Safety News reported, the petition received some well-deserved support. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to include 6 additional strands of E. coli, including O145 and O111, as hazardous adulterants to be included in testing by USDA.

“The laws that are meant to keep us safe from hazardous foods are in critical need of updating,” Senator Gillibrand said in a press release. “We need immediate action to keep our families safe.”

What many people don’t know, though, is that different strains of E. coli can be found almost everywhere in our environment. In fact, humans excrete between 100 billion and 10 trillion E. coli bacteria daily. Moreover, E. coli can be a digestive aid, and it even provides vitamins, like K and B-complex.

Unfortunately, many strains of virulent E. coli produce toxins, such as O157:H7, the strain that sickened hundreds in the Jack in the Box outbreak.  Because of its lethality, O157:H7 was declared an adulterant by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in 1994, which allowed the agency to test food for the bacterium and seek a recall if food is found contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

Meanwhile, other deadly strains of E. coli–O26, O111, O103–were left unclassified. Recognizing the danger posed by this loophole, the food safety law firm Marler Clark submitted a petition to FSIS on October 5, 2009, requesting the agency to issue an interpretive rule declaring non-O157:H7 serotypes of E. coli as adulterants.

After more than four months, Phil Derfler, an assistant administrator with FSIS, finally responded to the firm’s petition.

The response, dated January 27, 2010, approved the petition for expedited review and acknowledged the need to further consider non-O157:H7 serotypes as adulterants.

“FSIS recognized the need to conduct research and otherwise develop the data the Agency needs to help address the outstanding issues,” Mr. Derfler said.  This includes “the need to develop laboratory capacity to support policy decisions with respect to non-O157:H7 STEC (Shiga toxin-producing E. coli).”

Bill Marler, the managing partner of Marler Clark and author of the petition, took issue with Derfler’s lab capacity claim.

“It is worth noting that your sister agency, the FDA, has already developed and implemented a method to identify isolates that belong to six prevalent [E. coli] serotypes,” he replied in a letter on February 22, 2010. “With these recent developments, detection has become more feasible than ever before.  As you know, we used methods in our own study on retail ground beef in 2008.” 

In addition, Marler promised to write FSIS every 3 months to stay informed on the progress of work on the petition.

True to his word, Marler followed up with FSIS on April 1, 2010. “I would like to know if the agency has made any progress in its study to determine laboratory-testing capacity,” he asked. “If you need any additional materials from me to aid in this study, I will gladly do my best to provide them.”

Derfler, whom Marler now playfully calls his “pen pal,” responded on April 8, 2010.

“When FSIS has an appropriate laboratory method for conducting regulatory sampling for non-O157:H7 STEC, and has developed a plan for how it intends to address this issue,” he wrote, “it will make the plan available to the public for comment. At that time, the Agency will also issue a final response to your petition.”

Marler remains determined to demonstrate the danger of non-O157:H7 STEC. To prove his point, he recently hired a private laboratory to test grocery store ground beef around the country. So far, 4,700 samples have been tested, and 1.9 percent of them have tested positive for non-O157:H7 E. coli.  

For Marler, the numbers reinforce the need for more regulation. “Prompt action regarding this petition continues to be of the utmost importance,” he told Food Safety News. Citing Dana Boner, a mother who lost her child to E. coli O111 in 2007, Marler affirmed the danger of allowing non-O157:H7 serotypes to remain outside the classification of adulterant. “Indeed, more deaths are inevitable if the USDA does not change its policies.”                  

The video features prominent food safety lawyer Bill Marler and several of his clients, including Brianne Kiner, a 10-year-old girl who spent almost 6 months in the hospital in 1993 after eating at Jack in the Box, and Stephanie Smith, a 22-year-old dance instructor who was paralyzed by a stroke after contracting E. coli O157:H7 from ground beef produced by Cargill, Inc.

In addition to profiling those sickened in foodborne illness outbreaks, the video examines the process by which the government responds.

“After every outbreak, there’ll be some Department of Ag (Agriculture) person who stands up and says ‘we have the safest food supply in the world,'” Mr. Marler says in the video. “Well, that doesn’t really help you a lot when you’ve just poisoned a couple hundred people.”

“What the federal government likes to do,” Marler told Food Safety News, “is grandstand. After every outbreak, lawmakers act outraged and demand accountability. Unfortunately, concrete steps are rarely taken.”

“As I’ve said before,” he continued, “make food safe and put me out of business.”

Mission: Readiness, as the group is called, appeared yesterday on Capitol Hill with Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind) and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack touting a report that says fatty school lunches make children so obese that future military recruitment is in jeopardy.

The report, titled Too Fat to Fight, found that more than 9 million young adults, or 27 percent of all Americans age 17-24, are too overweight to join the military.

“Being overweight or obese turns out to be the leading medical reason why applicants fail to qualify for military service,” the report says. “Today, otherwise excellent recruit prospects, some of them with generations of sterling military service in their family history, are turned away because they are just too overweight.”

In addition, the report estimates that the government spends tens of millions of dollars every year to train replacements for service members, sometimes at $50,000 per recruit, who are then discharged because of weight problems.

The solution, the officers say, is a nutrition bill that will make the food available in schools healthier.

“We are calling on Congress to pass new child nutrition legislation that would (a) get the junk food out of our schools, (b) support increased funding to improve nutritional standards and the quality of meals served in schools; and (c) provide more children access to effective programs that cut obesity.”

The pending legislation, called the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, would commit an additional $4.5 billion to child-nutrition programs over the next 10 years and implement the most sweeping changes to those programs in decades. The bill, which has broad bipartisan support, is currently awaiting a Senate vote.

Although all branches of the military now meet recruitment goals, retired Navy Rear Admiral James Barnett Jr., a member of officers group, believes national security in 2030 is “absolutely dependent” on reversing child obesity rates.

“When over a quarter of young adults are too fat to fight, we need to take notice,” he said.
Tom Vilsack, who joined the officers’ group in calling for passage of the child nutrition bill, agreed.

“As the generals and admirals have indicated, it’s a national security concern,” he told MSNBC.

As indicated, the USDA recently issued a draft guidance seeking to aid small plants in meeting food safety requirements. Specifically, the regulation is designed to clarify Pathogen Reduction: Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HAACP), a regulatory system published by the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in 1996.

The USDA says the new rules are needed to ensure that meat handlers are keeping dangerous bacteria out of their products. In a recent letter to the industry, the USDA said that a “demonstrated failure” by processors to ensure they had proper safety measures had led to a series of recalls involving pork barbecue, sausages and other products.

But small farmers claim new fees and inspection requirements would impose ruinous financial burdens that could cause businesses to drop products or go out of business.

Some experts agree. John Ikerd, emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri, Columbia, said the bill’s impact on smaller producers “could be a blow to the whole local food movement,” running contrary to the Obama administration’s campaign to promote locally grown foods and small producers.

A trade association that represents small plants, the American Association of Meat Processors, estimated the initial costs at as much as $12,000 per product line and then $3,600 per year.

Paul Bubeck, who runs a small business that sells smoked products to supermarkets, said the USDA proposal could cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

 
“I can’t believe we have to fight the government to stay in business,” he said.

At issue are the safety rules that processors have to follow to ensure they are taking proper measures to prevent contaminated meat from reaching consumers. According to some estimates, processors might have to start testing meat before and after it is treated with cleansing acid washes, heating measures, or any other steps taken to kill harmful bacteria. In some cases, 13 samples of a product would be tested at each time.

This process could be especially costly for small producers because they often produce specialty meats or many different types and styles. Testing for a large cattle slaughterhouse, conversely, would be simpler and more cost-efficient, given that it might just produce one line of beef carcasses.

Not surprisingly, big food companies generally support the measures, judging that added expenses would be small compared to the potential financial damage of a vast product recall or outbreak. For this reason, food safety regulation has often been blamed for the shrinking number of small meat processors and the concentration of market power in industry giants like Tyson Foods and Smithfield Foods.

“Anytime you increase regulation you increase costs and you concentrate an industry,” said Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey. “This is a perfect example of how that can happen.”

The USDA, however, agreed to look into the complaints and is currently taking comments from the industry and the public.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Kathleen Merrigan, who is spearheading the local food initiative, said the cost estimates being used by opponents of the bill are overblown, but that she’ll be discussing the issue soon with officials from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS). 

 
Although Merrigan said that organic farmers and small businesses need rules that are “transparent, strict, and rigorously enforced,” the USDA doesn’t want to harm small-scale meat processors.

“I don’t think we’re on a collision course,” she said.

State laws in California, Washington state, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, however, allow raw milk and raw milk products that meet state standards to be sold in retail stores. And proponents say it is more nutritious, tastes better, and is no more harmful than pasteurized milk.

In 2009, two leading public health agencies, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), held informational sessions to discuss emerging issues surrounding the increasing popularity of raw milk.  After examining the scope and complexity of the debate, many participants felt that there was a need for a website entirely devoted to raw milk.  Last night, such a website was launched.

The site, http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com, is designed to serve as a clearinghouse for scientific studies, presentations, commentaries, regulations, and position statements on the topic. Developed and reviewed by scientists and health educators in universities, government, industry, and trade organizations, the site offers news, Q&A, personal stories, and lucid analysis of the real risks and benefits of raw milk.

Michele Jay-Russell, Co-Organizer of the American Veterinary Medical Association Raw Milk Symposium and President of the American Association of Public Health Veterinarians, said discussions during the session were the inspiration for creating a new Website. 

“We continued to exchange information after the meeting, and created a place online where consumers interested in natural foods and health could obtain factual information about the benefits and risks related to raw milk,” Jay-Russell said.

Bill Marler, managing partner of Marler Clark, the Seattle-based food safety law firm, said the site is an amazing collaboration of experts, academics, and scientists.

“Marler Clark was proud to support the work of everyone who participated in putting the site together,” he said. “Special thanks go to our clients who were willing to share their stories of the real risk of raw milk.”    

The Advisory Team will consist of JBS personnel and six industry experts from Colorado State University, Texas A&M University, and West Texas A&M University. According to a statement from JBS USA, the goal will be to “collaboratively provide technical advice and recommendations to improve food safety efforts at the company.”

“I am confident the expert guidance the Team will provide will allow JBS to improve our current food safety efforts through the development of world-class food safety and quality programs,” Dr. John Ruby, leader and main coordinator of the Advisory Team, said in an interview with Meatingplace yesterday.

Historically, JBS USA’s food safety record has been far from perfect. On April 21, 2009, JBS produced and shipped an estimated 421,280 pounds of beef products that were contaminated with E. coli O157:H7 to its customers around the world. In what became the largest E. coli outbreak of 2009 in the United States, JBS USA’s products sickened at least 23 people in nine states, hospitalizing twelve and leaving two with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).
Victims from two states, Colorado and  Wisconsin, have filed personal injury lawsuits against the meat giant.

JBS, however, hopes the creation of the Food Safety and Quality Advisory Team will help develop and enhance food safety.

“We realized that we needed some additional expertise from the outside to help us become the world-class food safety team we’re trying to be,” Dr. Ruby said. “We’re trying to bring experts in to . . . pick their brains about interventions that might be useful in the packing plant.”

However, a growing trend in Thailand’s domestic food production has the Thai Ministry of Health concerned. Apparently, the consumption of cheap, processed sugar has been on the rise among Thailand’s population. 7-11 is now the nation’s most prevalent store, offering a variety of junk foods ranging from squid-flavored potato chips to sugar-loaded energy drinks around the clock.

Market vendors, too, are using an increasing amount of unhealthy, processed sugar in their food products.

“It’s almost impossible to add too much sugar,” said Waiwong Wittayakun, owner of a popular pad thai stand in Bangkok’s On Nut market. “Thai people, we like it sweet.”

Unfortunately, this preference for sweetness is partly responsible for Thailand’s fastest growing disease: diabetes. According to Wittaya Kaewparadai, Thailand’s Minister of Public Health, more than 3 million people in Thailand are now living with diabetes. This computes to nearly one in 10 Thais, surpassing even America’s rate of one in 12.

Worse still is the fact that many Thai grade schools serve processed meals. “The kids turn into adults who are addicted to sweet food. And they get fat because no one plays in the fields anymore,” said Napaporn Sowattanangoon, a diabetes specialist with Thailand’s Mahidol University.

Adults, too, are living more sedentary lifestyles. Developing countries such as Thailand, China, and India are seeing the fastest growing diabetes rate, according to InterAsia, a research collaboration between American, Chinese, and Thai universities, in part because of newfound prosperity. Although it improves the economic wellbeing of many people, emerging opulence leads to more desk jobs, higher consumption of industrially produced food, and less healthy behavior.     

“Traditionally, our food is supposed to have a balance of sugar,” said Napaporn. “You’re supposed to taste sweetness balanced with spice, sourness, and other flavors. Now, cooks just go overboard with sugar. It’s like they don’t even care about the dangers.”

The dangers, though, are substantial. According to the International Diabetes Federation, diabetes is a leading cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attack, stroke, and amputation.

 
“It is estimated that 50,000 – 60,000 of people living with diabetes in Thailand will develop blur vision or blindness,” said Health Minister Kaewparadai.

Diabetes in Thailand is further complicated by a lack of awareness among diabetics. The disease translates from Thai as “sweet urine disease,” which is often self-diagnosed when villagers notice ants gathering around their outdoor toilets.

Some diabetic Thais also choose to ignore the disease. Many attribute their condition to karma, blaming the illness on misdeeds from past lives. Others recite their Buddhist acceptance of illness and death, choosing instead to indulge in sweet foods.

Because of this, researchers have advised government doctors to use more Buddhist logic to help direct Thais away from poor diets, citing monks who lower blood pressure by meditating and avoiding large meals. 

Thailand’s Ministry of Health has also taken steps to combat the disease. The agency has embarked on a “Khon Thai Rai Pung” campaign to raise awareness about obesity and to encourage Thai people to reduce their weight by engaging in more physical activities. The government has also enlisted the help of foreign nations such as the United States.

“In cooperation with the Food and Drug Administration, we are opening pesticides-free markets like Sam Yan Market, where there is an officer from the FDA to check every entrepreneur and certify quality of food product,” Public Health Minister Wittaya said.

“We have to educate Thai people to prevent getting diabetes by reducing the risk and modifying lifestyles and consumption behaviors.”

  
Health officials said the first reported illness occurred on March 19. The daycare, located in Clark County, WA, was temporarily shut down on April 2.

The name of the child who died has not been released, nor has the age.  Dr. Alan Melnick, a Clark County Health officer, said the transmission was thought to be person-to-person.

Officials said seven people who work at or attend the daycare have also displayed symptoms consistent with E. coli poisoning, but none have been hospitalized.  So far, investigators haven’t been able to identify the source.

“In investigating this particular outbreak, we were not able to find a point of source or specific food or beverage item that caused the infection,” Melnick said. “What it seemed like was that there was some person to person transmission going on in the daycare.”

Those who live near the daycare center said the establishment’s owners, Larry and Diane Fletch, are responsible childcare providers.

“We had decided to close even before they told us to do so. It was so hard,” said Larry Fletch. “We care so much and work so hard. It really is so horrible. We knew the child since before he was born. We’ve been trying to help the family. It’s just so horrible. We were close to the child. We’re close to all of our children.”  

The three other sickened children are recovering at home.

Harvard Faculty Club, an upscale restaurant and lodge, voluntarily closed the club last week when patrons began reporting illnesses. The club brought in an outside cleaning crew to disinfect the building, and after receiving approval from the city reopened on Sunday, April 4. About 100 full and part-time employees were also screened for norovirus.

Between that Sunday and the following Tuesday morning, however, about 100 people reported symptoms consistent with norovirus, including nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping, forcing the club to close for a second time.

According to Louise Rice, director of public nursing for the city of Cambridge, the club will remain closed for at least seven days while the building is cleaned again.

Cleaning crews will need to scrub every appliance and surface of the building, from doorknobs to pencils and pens.

“It’s very hard to rub out entirely,” Rice said.

When asked where the virus came from, Rice said it is possible that at least one employee was carrying norovirus without any noticeable symptoms, despite the screenings. Otherwise, she said, it came from somewhere in the outside environment.

After public health officials confirmed the presence of norovirus, Crista Martin, a spokesman for Harvard’s hospitality and dining services, said the Faculty Club will follow all of the recommendations made by the City.

“We will work with them to eliminate this concern and safeguard the health of our customers,” she said.

The Harvard Faculty Club is asking those who became ill after dining there to contact the Cambridge Department of Public Health at 617-665-3800.

The move is a response to President Obama’s Transparency and Open Government Memorandum, which was issued January 21, 2009, instructing the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to provide guidance to all federal departments and agencies on implementing the principles of transparency, participation, and collaboration. The OMB responded by issuing the Open Government Directive, requiring federal agencies to develop an Open Government Plan to act as a roadmap for incorporating transparency, participation, and collaboration into its core mission.

The USDA Open Government Plan reflects the input of senior policy, legal, and technology leadership in the agency, as well as input from those outside these leadership positions, including federal employees, agency stakeholders, and the general public.

Specifically, it establishes a unique governance structure comprised of three levels of leadership and direction: working groups, an Advisory Council, and a Steering Committee. These three components are expected to work in unison to ensure transparency, participation, and collaboration. 

Transparency, according to USDA, will be achieved by providing greater accessibility to data and current information to give the public a better understanding of the USDA as an organization. Collaboration will be pursued by improving upon existing partnerships and establishing new sustainable ones that will foster an enhanced shared understanding of the core mission.

To address participation, USDA has opened a website, called Open Government, that allows the public to share ideas, discuss them with each other, and vote for or express disagreement with the new ideas. As a result, the most popular ideas “rise to the top” for closer review by the agency, ultimately enabling the government to better understand and respond to the public.

“We owe the American people an open and transparent government but to make the government as effective as possible in completing the people’s business, we need our citizens to participate and collaborate with us. This is an unprecedented effort to open the government and work with the people it serves,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “At USDA, we used a ground-up approach, seeking guidance from our employees and the public as to how to best achieve the Open Government goals.”

You can download the entire USDA Open Government Plan here.

On Thursday, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson announced new guidelines to ensure that state and federal regulators enforce existing environmental standards. The guidance from EPA establishes a range of conductivity levels for streams affected by runoff from mountaintop mining, a controversial practice in which explosives literally blow off the tops of mountains to expose coal seams near the surface. Scientists have determined that conductivity is a reliable way to measure the health of water because it indicates the amount of salt in the water. The lower the level of salt, the easier it is for organisms to survive.

In addition, new permits aimed at reducing water pollution will be required for mountaintop mining operations. 

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, called the move “the most significant administrative action ever taken to address mountaintop removal coal mining.”

EPA also made public several scientific reports on the impacts of surface mining. The studies show “significant damage to local streams that are polluted with the mining runoff from mountaintop mining removal,” EPA said in a release.

Moreover, runoff introduced into the waterways surrounding MTR sites “can significantly compromise water quality, often causing permanent damage to ecosystems and rendering streams unfit for swimming, fishing, and drinking.”

“This benchmark prevents irreversible damage to the physical and biological integrity of Appalachian streams and protects 95 percent of aquatic organisms living in them,” Ms. Jackson said.      

 
Environmentalists cheered the move, but the coal industry criticized the government for imposing rules that companies fear could hurt jobs in the region.

“America’s coal mining communities are deeply concerned by the impact of policy announced today by EPA on coal mining permits, employment, and economic activity throughout Appalachia,” said Bruce Watzman, senior vice president for regulatory affairs at the National Mining Association, in an e-mailed statement to the New York Times. 

Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, said the group was deeply concerned that EPA’s action would harm the regional economy.

“This guidance ignores a much-needed balance between economic needs and environmental expectations,” Popovich said.

Jackson, however, said her agency was taking action at the request of various government leaders, including Senator Robert Byrd (D-W.VA), founder of the Clean Coal Technology Program.

“I am pleased that EPA Administrator Jackson took our concerns about the need to provide clarity very seriously and has responded with these guidelines,” the Senator said.

Jackson, too, defended her agency’s announcement.

“Let me be clear,” she said. “This is not about ending coal mining. This is about ending coal mining pollution.”

The law was first passed in 2008 after the Humane Society released a video depicting images of “downer” cows–cows that are unable to stand or walk without assistance–being kicked, electrocuted, dragged with chains, and rammed with forklifts at California’s Westland/Hallmark slaughterhouse. In addition to protesting against the inhumane animal treatment, California legislators argued that downed animals are more likely to harbor E. coli, Salmonella, and other germs which endanger millions of Americans every year. 

Before the law could take effect, however, a federal judge barred its enforcement at federally inspected swine slaughterhouses in the state of California because of a lawsuit brought by the National Meat Association (NMA) and the American Meat Institute (AMI).

The suit, National Meat Association v. Brown, alleged that although federal regulations prohibited the sale of meat from downer cattle, they permitted the sale of meat from pigs and other animals unless they demonstrated signs of certain diseases. This federal regulation, NMA lawyers said, preempted state authority over any aspect of slaughter and thus invalidated the California law.

Judges from the court of appeals called the argument “hogwash,” perhaps facetiously, and ruled 3-0 against the NMA.

“Regulating what kinds of animals may be slaughtered calls for a host of practical, moral and public health judgments that go far beyond those made in (federal regulation),” wrote Chief Judge Alex Kozinski. “These are the kinds of judgments reserved to the states, and nothing requests states to make them on a species-wide basis or not at all. Federal law regulates the meat inspection process; states are free to decide which animals may be turned into meat.”

The NMA, unhappy with the ruling, issued a press release yesterday voicing disagreement.

 
“The decision fails to address the huge distinction between animals–in this case swine in particular–that are fatigued by travel and are therefore at rest, from animals that are physically unable to stand up and move,” the statement said.

Barry Carpenter, CEO and President of NMA, will likely ask the full appeals court to review the ruling.

“NMA will discuss options with its associates and legal counsel,” he said. “This California law fails to distinguish between livestock at rest and livestock that have no independent mobility and that is a critical and potentially illegal failing for a state law that applies to animals on the premises of a USDA-inspected plant.”      

According to Daniele, the company has suffered significant profit loss since the onset of the outbreak.  Lawsuits filed against Daniele by sickened customers are on the rise (Seattle-based food safety law firm Marler Clark has filed two lawsuits thus far and represents 17 victims of the outbreak), and although the company has implemented a new food safety system, public trust in the company remains low.

Citing present and future monetary losses, Daniele filed suit Tuesday against Wholesome Spice and Seasonings Inc. and the Mincing Trading Corp., two of Daniele’s largest pepper suppliers. In 2009, Daniele purchased 50,000 pounds of pepper from Wholesome and 40,000 pounds from Mincing, the suit says.

The lawsuit claims that Daniele was forced to recall 1.4 million pounds of its products and refund $1.5 million to customers because it used pepper to coat some of its meat products, such as its Italian-style salami.

In early March, the Rhode Island Department of Health and other health officials linked the Salmonella Montevideo outbreak to black pepper used by Daniele, and the United States Department of Agriculture found that the contaminated black pepper and crushed red pepper had been produced by Wholesome and Mincing. According to the company’s website, Daniele has since terminated its relationship with the two suppliers, and now uses only irradiated spices.

Based on these findings, Mincing recalled 20, 25, and 50-pound cartons of its black pepper and Wholesome recalled the ground red pepper, crushed red pepper, and whole black pepper it sold to Daniele.

Specifically, the suit accuses the spice manufacturers of negligence and breach of contract.

“The hallmarks of success in the specialty food industry are quality and reputation,” the suit says, something the pepper suppliers damaged by selling Daniele the contaminated spice.