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Spinach Gets Look at Regs-Where's the Beef?

Econ101

Well-known member
Sept. 20, 2006, 10:44PM
Spinach scare prompts review
Many lawmakers want to improve regulation process

By MICHAEL DOYLE
Fresno Bee

WASHINGTON - The contaminated spinach that's sickening consumers is emboldening lawmakers who want to strengthen federal defenses against future outbreaks of food-borne illness.

With at least one death and 130 sick patients attributed to California spinach tainted by E. coli, the moment seems ripe for action. That could mean more money for research, more muscle for regulators and reformed oversight of the nation's food supply.

But while past food scares have likewise prompted shakeups, second-guessing and open wallets, federal power remains both limited and complex. Top regulatory positions remain unfilled. And there are multiple federal agencies with overlapping responsibilities coping with a hodge-podge of at least 30 different laws touching on food safety.

"There's always a need for these things to be reviewed," Rep. Sam Farr, D-Calif., said Tuesday, "and with this kind of crisis, it's probably a good thing to be checking in."

Unlike some lawmakers, Farr, whose district includes the Salinas Valley fields where the tainted spinach was grown, does not want a wholesale overhaul of federal regulatory efforts. He does want more money, so scientists can track how the E. coli bacteria usually found in animal intestines made its way into fresh-cut spinach.

"In terms of the emergency response, there's enough money for the short term," Farr said. "I don't think there's enough funding for the long term."

Enforcing safety
By the numbers, food safety regulation is already big business.

The major federal regulatory agencies devote some $1.7 billion a year and roughly 15,000 employees to enforcing food safety. They do not all wear the same uniform.

The Agriculture Department handles meat, poultry and some eggs. The National Marine Fisheries Service handles seafood. The Environmental Protection Agency oversees pesticides.

The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for fruits and vegetables, so it is investigating the contaminated spinach traced to the Salinas Valley. It's familiar territory: Last month, citing the "recurring outbreaks of E. coli" that have included at least 20 episodes since 1995 linked to spinach or lettuce, the FDA unveiled its "Lettuce Safety Initiative." It includes visits by FDA officials to farms, cooling and packing facilities.

The agency, however, lacks the power to recall tainted produce.

Nor do the different federal agencies all follow the same rules. The Agriculture Department, for instance, inspects canning facilities daily if the plant produces canned beans with meat or chicken. If the canned beans lack meat or chicken, the FDA will inspect the plant between a year and up to every five years.

"Most (experts) agreed that laws and regulations should be modernized to more effectively and efficiently control food safety hazards," the Government Accountability Office noted last year, "but they differed about whether to consolidate food safety functions into a single agency."

Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die. With so many problems, some lawmakers have previously tried to reinforce existing food safety efforts.

Spending proposal
The first opportunity for reform or reinforcements for federal food safety efforts will come in the Agriculture Department and FDA funding bill for fiscal 2007. The House is proposing to spend $1.5 billion for the FDA next year, more than last year but slightly less than President Bush had requested. The Senate has not yet approved its version.

The least likely reform would be a wholesale reorganization of the food safety regulatory agencies, even though that is what some believe is most necessary.

The FDA currently labors under an acting commissioner, as Bush's latest nominee has yet to win Senate confirmation. Various political controversies have kept the permanent FDA position vacant for more than half of Bush's time in office.
 

Mike

Well-known member
"Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die. With so many problems, some lawmakers have previously tried to reinforce existing food safety efforts."



THE U.S. HAS THE SAFEST FOOD IN THE WORLD"?
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
Mike said:
"Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die. With so many problems, some lawmakers have previously tried to reinforce existing food safety efforts."



THE U.S. HAS THE SAFEST FOOD IN THE WORLD"?

The USA has the cheapest food in the world! I don't understand why an industry strives to sell product as cheaply as possible. And much of the dollars consumers save are coming out of producer's pockets! :mad: What about the idea of convincing the consumer to pay more for higher quality(safer)?
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Mike and Robert are right, the race to the bottom has costs, only they are hidden by this industry.

Robert Mac, had some grass fed beef and I will never go back to grain fed.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Third spinach death verified
Senior citizen in Nebraska ate Dole greens
By DANIA AKKAD
Herald Salinas Bureau
An elderly Nebraska woman who died of kidney failure Aug. 31 was infected with E. coli from eating fresh spinach, bringing to three the number of people who have perished in a nationwide outbreak of the bacteria, health officials said Friday.

Ruby Trautz, 84, of Omaha, ate Dole baby spinach contaminated with the same strain of E. coli that has sickened at least 190 other people around the country and killed two others, state health officials said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that the woman's death had been linked to the outbreak.

The state's tests, performed this week, confirmed earlier results from an independent lab that a family member had hired because "he was really sure that it was the spinach that made her ill," said Marla Augustine, spokeswoman for Nebraska Health and Human Services System.

Trautz's son-in-law, who was sickened with E. coli but survived, has also tested positive for the same strain, Augustine said.

According to her obituary in The Bellevue Leader, Trautz was born in Manzanor, Calif., and worked for the NASA Ames Research Center -- then called the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory -- at Moffett Field as a 17-year-old.

She worked as a nurse in several California hospitals before serving as a flight nurse in the Air Force.

She wanted to be the first senior citizen on a space flight, the obituary said.

Through their Seattle-based attorney Bill Marler, Trautz's family declined to comment Friday.

The news came a day after Idaho health officials confirmed that a 2-year-old boy had died from eating contaminated greens. Tainted spinach also killed an elderly Wisconsin woman.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration lifted a two-week consumer warning on fresh spinach, and on Wednesday, the FBI searched San Juan Bautista-based Natural Selection Foods and Salinas-based Growers Express for evidence of possible environmental-law violations. Agents sifted through records for indications of whether the spinach producers skirted proper food-handling procedures.

Warrants still sealed|

On Friday, spokesmen with the FBI and the U.S. attorney's Northern California district office confirmed that the search warrants permitting the FBI to raid the two companies remained sealed in the federal courthouse in San Jose.

Luke Macaulay, U.S. attorney public affairs officer, said he could not comment on why the search warrants and affidavits are sealed, nor could he comment on whether the investigation had expanded.

The investigation, in its early stages, may or may not lead to criminal charges and could spread to other spinach producers, FBI officials have said.

Dave Babcock, an attorney with the Seattle-based Marler Clark Law Firm which has been involved in several high-profile food poisoning cases, said statutes in the 1938 Federal Food and Drug and Cosmetics Act make it a crime simply to sell products that are unsafe for human consumption, whether or not a company realized the products were adulterated.

The penalty for a single infraction of selling such products is $1,000 or less than a year in jail.

But criminal charges in food safety incidents aren't usually filed against companies simply for selling contaminated products, Babcock said.

Penalties for cover-up|

More often, more serious charges with bigger fines and jail time are filed when company officials try to cover up mistakes they made that led to an outbreak, he said.

In 2004, for example, an operations manager at a food distribution warehouse in Illinois was charged with a felony after he lied to federal authorities about ammonia-tainted chicken tenders from his warehouse that sickened more than 100 schoolchildren and teachers at a Chicago-area school.

The chicken had been held for eight days in a storage facility, sitting directly below an ammonia leak. Instead of throwing away the tainted meat, the manager ordered employees to put it in a room with charcoal to get rid of the ammonia smell, repackage it and send it to schools.

At Laraway Elementary School, where the chicken eventually ended up, children started running into the hallway about 25 minutes after lunch, vomiting. No one was permanently harmed in the incident.

When asked later whether he had repackaged the chicken and how long the ammonia had been leaking, he lied, Babcock said, and was later sent to jail.

The takeaway point, Babcock said, is there is a wide range of ways a company can violate the 1938 act and, therefore, a range of charges prosecutors can choose to file, depending on what the FDA and FBI investigators find.

"You don't have to arrest every single jaywalker or every single speeder," he said.

Dania Akkad can be reached at 753-6752 or [email protected] montereyherald
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die.

Sooo, If this is 2006 and we have lost 30,000 souls from one problem in 6 years, Whose AT FAULT ?????????????
 

Mrs.Greg

Well-known member
Just heard this am. three cases of Botulism in Canada and four in U.S.A from carrot juice,sorry I don't know how to get that info. onto here.

Its scary,that a person trusts whats on the store shelves,in both our country's.
 

cowzilla

Well-known member
PORKER said:
Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die.

Sooo, If this is 2006 and we have lost 30,000 souls from one problem in 6 years, Whose AT FAULT ?????????????
In most cases food safety procedure measures are allready in place but lack of supervision is the culprit. REMEMBER we pay the people we trust the most for our food safety the LEAST. WE ARE AT FAULT :roll:
 

RobertMac

Well-known member
cowzilla said:
PORKER said:
Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die.

Sooo, If this is 2006 and we have lost 30,000 souls from one problem in 6 years, Whose AT FAULT ?????????????
In most cases food safety procedure measures are allready in place but lack of supervision is the culprit. REMEMBER we pay the people we trust the most for our food safety the LEAST. WE ARE AT FAULT :roll:

When you strive to pay the lowest possible price, you usually get what you pay for!!! :eek: :shock: :? :roll:
 

mrj

Well-known member
Mike said:
"Overall, 76 million U.S. residents become sick annually from food-borne illness, more than 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die. With so many problems, some lawmakers have previously tried to reinforce existing food safety efforts."



THE U.S. HAS THE SAFEST FOOD IN THE WORLD"?

Will you give us a link to food safety in "the rest of the world" outside the USA?

Curiousity compels me to ask, since several on this site including yourself seem to doubt much that is reported by USDA and other US agencies, and some show skepticism for government honesty/accuracy of Canada and other nations exporting beef to the USA, why/ how do you judge whether or not food safety information systems from other nations are honestly reported?

MRJ
 
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