2006 E. coli outbreak linked to local farm
BY STACEY SHEPARD, Californian staff writer
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[email protected] | Friday, Feb 22 2008 11:10 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Feb 22 2008 10:12 PM
Food safety officials have linked a Kern County farm to tainted iceberg lettuce that sickened 81 people in Iowa and Minnesota in late 2006.
Lettuce raised on Wegis Ranch in Buttonwillow and served at Taco John’s restaurants was the source of the large E. coli outbreak, the 16-month federal and state investigation revealed.
The report does not definitively state how the lettuce was contaminated but said water contaminated by manure from two nearby dairies could be a possible source.
Wegis Ranch uses manure water to irrigate some fields where animal feed is grown, according to the report. It said lettuce linked to the E. coli outbreak was grown directly across from two of those fields.
In addition, the ranch’s irrigation system may have allowed manure water to taint freshwater used to irrigate fields where lettuce was grown, the report concluded.
E.coli samples from the ranch and dairies genetically matched the strain found in the tainted lettuce. The dairies were Maya and West Star North.
The investigation was done by the California Department of Public Health’s Food and Drug Branch and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“This latest report tells us once again that our food safety system is dysfunctional,” state Sen. Dean Florez said Friday.
The Shafter Democrat said the report will be the subject of an upcoming hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness.
It’s also likely to reinvigorate Florez’s efforts to get tougher food safety regulations enacted after he failed to do so last year.
The senator drafted stricter regulations after another E. coli outbreak in 2006 in which Salinas Valley spinach killed three people and sickened hundreds. They were defeated in a committee chaired by his political foe, Assemblywoman Nicole Parra, D-Hanford.
Parra favored an industry proposal containing self-regulated safety measures.
The E. coli-tainted lettuce was grown at Wegis Ranch before those measures took effect and there have been no food-borne outbreaks since then, said Mike Young, part-owner of the ranch.
Lettuce is no longer grown at the ranch because those measures prohibit leafy greens from being grown close to confined animal facilities like dairies, Young said.
The ranch does grow tomatoes and cucumbers but sends them to processing plants where they’re cooked at temperatures high enough to kill any pathogens.
Young said the report shows food safety agencies don’t know enough about agriculture or E. coli to police the food industry.
“When it takes them 16 months to come out with a report that's inconclusive, it's hard to stomach,” Young said.
Florez disagreed with Young’s assertion that the industry’s self-regulation measures included land-use issues.
“I look forward to hearing testimony at the hearing to clarify this issue,” Florez said.
*** Government sure works SLOW!! Link
http://www.boston.com/business/healthcare/articles/2008/02/23/after_spinach_scare_fda_calls_for_hand_washing/