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Cattle Operation May Have Caused E. coli Outbreak Linked to Romaine, FDA Says
Monday’s announcement is the first indication that the agency suspects water contamination from animal agriculture may have been the outbreak’s original source.
August 6th, 2018
by Joe Fassler Kate Cox
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday shed new light on what may have caused the E. coli outbreak that was traced to romaine lettuce from the Yuma, Arizona growing region earlier this year. The outbreak, which sickened at least 210 people in 36 states and killed five, was declared officially over as of June 28.
Now, an agency press release shows that FDA, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and state and local partners, has zeroed in on a potential suspect: a 100,000-head cattle operation located near lettuce fields in Yuma.
On the same day, the outbreak was declared finished, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb had issued a statement indicating that “Several environmental samples of canal water in the area have been found to contain E. coli O157:H7 that genetically match the strain of bacteria that caused the outbreak.” But Monday’s announcement is the first indication that the agency suspects water contamination from animal agriculture may have been the outbreak’s original source. “FDA notes that the canal is close to a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO), a facility with a large number of cattle on the premises,” the agency wrote in its statement, “…and the FDA traceback information showed a clustering of romaine lettuce farms nearby.”
Food safety lawyer Bill Marler, who is representing 105 people sickened in the romaine outbreak, told AZCentral he’d never heard of an E. coli case tied to an irrigation canal. But FDA’s hunch that a cattle operation may be to blame is not altogether surprising. Fresh produce outbreaks often begin with animal agriculture, even if it’s actually salads that are making people sick.
In 2006, a deadly E. coli outbreak linked to spinach was traced back to a cattle ranch in San Benito County, California, a highly productive agricultural region in the Salinas Valley. In that instance, too, irrigation wells too close to animals and their feces were named as a likely cause.
Animals, whether it’s livestock or wild animals like birds and rodents, are a major cause of food safety issues with fresh produce—and they’re a constant headache for growers. In Yuma, farmers are experimenting with falcons to keep rodents and wild birds at bay. The revelation that polluted canals may have been the source is sure to vex the region’s lettuce producers, who will need to find new ways to make sure their water supplies are safe.
Unlike the Salinas Valley, which is known as America’s Salad Bowl and is responsible for growing upwards of 70 percent of the country’s leafy greens and lettuce year-round, Yuma is often referred to as America’s Winter Vegetable Capital, producing 90 percent of our leafy greens from November through March (which accounts for the timing of the recent outbreak).
Much of the area is dedicated to growing lettuce, and according to the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce, the region is also home to nine salad plants producing bagged lettuce and salad mixes to the tune of 2 million pounds a day during peak months.
In its Monday statement, FDA said that it will continue to examine the links between the CAFO and adjacent water. Environmental assessments are ongoing, the results of which will be released to the public when complete.
Court Orders EPA To Ban Chlorpyrifos, A Pesticide Linked To Brain Damage In Children
Flickr / USDA
The 2-to-1 decision vacates an order made by former EPA chief Scott Pruitt earlier this year to allow the pesticide’s continued use on farms.
August 9th, 2018
by Jessica Fu
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban nearly all use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos in a 2-to-1 ruling.
In a decision that’s sure to please environmentalists and farmworker justice advocates, the court vacated EPA’s 2017 decision “to maintain a tolerance for chlorpyrifos in the face of scientific evidence that its residue on food causes neurodevelopmental damage to children.” Of particular importance, EPA was also ordered to revoke all tolerances and cancel all registrations for chlorpyrifos within 60 days.
Chlorpyrifos is commonly sprayed on a wide range of common crops, including corn, soybeans, fruit and nut trees, and more, to control against soil-borne insects.
Previously, under the Obama administration, EPA had begun working toward a ban on the widely used chemical, following the results of a 2016 agency study that showed exposure to chlorpyrifos posed health risks to fetuses and children, as well as to agricultural workers.
However, in March of this year, then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt rejected the findings of his own agency and ordered a reversal on the chlorpyrifos ban. According to the Associated Press, Pruitt had met briefly with Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, which manufactures chlorpyrifos, just weeks before he ordered the ban reversal. AP has since issued the following correction to that story: “A spokeswoman for the EPA says the meeting listed on the schedule was canceled, though Pruitt and Liveris did have a “brief introduction in passing.” (Pruitt had been nominated EPA chief by President Donald Trump in 2017, but Pruitt resigned in July of this year, after months of ethics scandals unrelated to chlorpyrifos.) Also of note: After Donald Trump’s election in 2016, Dow Chemical made a $1 million contribution to the president’s inaugural committee.
After Pruitt’s reversal, a coalition of farmworker-justice associations filed a lawsuit against EPA to overturn it. They were represented by Earthjustice, a non-profit litigation group focused on environmental issues, and the suit was soon joined by numerous states, including New York, Washington, and California, as well as the District of Columbia.
This ruling comes at the very same moment another product made by one of the world’s largest agrochemical companies—Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, which contains the controversial ingredient glyphosate—is under intense legal scrutiny. A California jury this week is deliberating whether or not years of use caused school groundskeeper Dewayne Johnson’s diagnosis of terminal cancer. It is the first such case to go to trial.
AgriTech Startup Pindfresh Is On A Mission To Bring Urban Farming Revolution In India
Diana Chingakham Inc42 Staff
The Startup Is Developing An App That Will Notify Customers When To Take Care Of The Plants
Food today is laden with chemical fertilizers that cause some major health risks such as cancer. Fertilisers such as ammonium nitrate, cadmium, potassium chloride, organophosphate (OP), pyrethroids, etc. are used to protect vegetables against pest and premature decay. Despite the apparent impact on health, the irony is that India is now the second largest manufacturer of pesticides in Asia after China and ranks twelfth globally.
“It was the importance of clean and healthy food dawned upon us. Bringing farming to the urban Indian homes, and making people aware of what they eat is the mission behind setting up Pindfresh,” says Somveer Anand, founder of agritech startup Pindfresh.
For Somveer and his wife Sohila Anand, the idea to launch Pindfresh was very much based on a personal experience that he had after one of his close relative fell ill due to the consumption of chemical-loaded food.
During their India visit the husband-wife duo had an hands-on experience on the extreme dearth of hygienic, nutritious food in India and this is where, they also felt, there was a dire need to provide people with the ability to grow vegetables locally. That’s precisely where the Pindfresh’s journey began 2016 when they were also joined in by Jaspal Singh Anand.
The agritech startup Pindfresh is turning small plots or spaces between buildings or in buildings into usable farm space. From rooftop gardens to floors specifically designed to incorporate farming, to other spaces within high-rises filled with racks of perfectly lined leaf vegetables, it is striving to bring about a farming revolution in urban India.
Apart from selling in-house home systems (hydroponic and others) and fresh produce (lettuce, rocket, basil, and mushrooms), it also runs programmes to train people (in schools and societies).
Inc
From Farm to Fork: The Regulatory Status of Non-GMO Plant Innovations Under Current EU Law
A new article on the latest plant breeding methods will be published on the next issue of BIO-SCIENCE LAW REVIEW.
The existing EU regulatory framework, when considered holistically, provides efficient guarantees that every stage of the agri-food supply chain, from lab to fork, is subject to constraints and obligations dictated by harmonized legislation, each providing various degrees of scrutiny, risk management and control, sanctions and remedial action.
Comparisons between the existing non-GMO legal framework with the GMO legislation or with any other authorization regime based on a full pre-market risk assessment are, by definition, of little practical relevance, since such regimes aim to address potentially serious risks, which, as the SAM Note clarifies, have not been identified in the case of Non-GMO NBT Products.
In the absence of any such concrete, identifiable risk induced by (the use of NBTs for) Non-GMO NBT Products and in view of their non-distinguishability from CBT products, the protection of human/animal/plant health and the environment should thus be considered to be adequately ensured and Non-GMO NBT Products should not be treated differently from products resulting from CBT.
The opposite conclusion would not only raise serious concerns under the SPS Agreement but would essentially also mean that all non-GMO plant products on the market today must be considered inadequately regulated. Just as Advocate-General Bobek concluded in his Opinion in Case C–528/16,133 with regard to mutagenesis, that ‘one could hardly assume that a reasonable legislator could ever wish to state, en bloc and for the future, that something is safe to such a degree that it does not need regulating at all’, one can neither assume that all NBT-products should en bloc be considered to only yield products suspect of causing unacceptable risks.
Against that backdrop, it is submitted that both the precautionary principle and the specific safeguard clauses in horizontal and sectoral legislation can justify and sufficiently guarantee the adoption of stricter risk management measures if a previously unidentified risk arises.”
More Cyclospora Cases Reported In McDonald’s Salad Outbreak
The Food and Drug Administration reports 436 cases of cyclospora have been confirmed by labs in an outbreak linked to McDonald's salads.
August 9, 2018
The Food and Drug Administration reports 436 cases of cyclospora have been confirmed by labs in an outbreak linked to McDonald's salads. ( File photo )
The Food and Drug Administration continues to investigate infections caused by the parasite Cyclospora thought to have been transferred by McDonald’s salad, and the number of cases is still growing.
The FDA on Aug. 9 released another update on the outbreak. In the week since the last update on Aug. 2, the number of illnesses rose from 395 to 436 in 15 states.
The investigation centers on McDonald’s restaurants and a romaine-carrot blend supplied by a Fresh Express processing plant in Streamwood, Ill.
The FDA, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local and state health agencies and Fresh Express are aiding in the investigation.
“The investigation is ongoing and the FDA is currently reviewing distribution and supplier information for romaine and carrots,” according to the FDA update.
The last onset date was July 20, according to the FDA. It can be up to two weeks before someone exhibits symptoms associated with the parasite.
North Carolina Jury Awards Neighbors $473.5 Million In Smithfield Hog Waste Suit
On August 3, a jury awarded the plaintiffs $473.5 million—the largest of three matching verdicts that seem to indicate the momentum is in favor of the plaintiffs as the remaining trials advance through the courts. Though compensation will be limited by the state's cap on damages.
August 3rd, 2018
by H. Claire Brown
UPDATE, AUGUST 3, 2018, 12:50 P.M., EST:
Since the first trial’s conclusion in April (which we cover below), two juries have reached the same verdict in subsequent nuisance lawsuits against Murphy-Brown, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods. On August 3, a jury awarded the plaintiffs $473.5 million—the largest to date. The three matching verdicts seem to indicate the momentum is in favor of the plaintiffs as the remaining trials advance through the courts. Though, actual compensation is likely to be quite limited by North Carolina’s cap on damages.
A North Carolina jury ruled on Thursday, April 26, 2018, that Murphy-Brown LLC, a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor, and hog producer, must pay its neighbors $50 million in damages as the result of a nuisance lawsuit. It’s a major win for advocates who have fought the pork industry for decades.
In the lawsuit, filed in 2014, the 10 plaintiffs argued that waste from Kinlaw Farm, a hog producer that contracts with Murphy-Brown, smelled so bad it limited their access to the outdoors in rural Bladen County, North Carolina. They also argued that the farm’s open waste lagoons attracted buzzards and flies and that trucks full of dead animals passed their houses at all hours of the day and night.
“Even in your sleep, you got to be disturbed by odor and truck lights and stuff,” says Naeema Muhammad, organizing co-director of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, a group that has advocated on behalf of local residents. She adds that this is the first time anyone has ever filed an action of this magnitude in court. “I tell you, it is pretty historic.”
The win may be inspirational for other communities organizing against industrial agriculture’s interests.
This was the first of 26 nuisance cases local residents have brought against the company, and the results indicate that the momentum is on the side of the plaintiffs. Nuisance lawsuits—particularly nuisance lawsuits filed against meat producers in states where the industry employs powerful lobbyists—are notoriously difficult to bring to trial, much less to win.
The jury, in this case, ruled that each plaintiff should be awarded $75,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages.
“It’s been a long, hard-fought battle. This is decades old in this state,” Muhammed says.
Yet the pork industry appears to be one step ahead of the plaintiffs: Less than a year go, the North Carolina Legislature passed a law that limits the amount of money agricultural entities have to pay in damages in nuisance suits, North Carolina Policy Watch reports. The industry-backed North Carolina Pork Council has donated $90,000 to legislative candidates since the year 2000, and Muhammad says the congressman who sponsored the bill hailed from the largest pork-producing county in the state.
Compensatory damages—that’s the money a jury awards for recovery from property devaluation, medical bills, and lost wages—were limited to loss of property value only, not loss of quality of life. North Carolina statute also limits punitive damages to triple the amount of compensatory damages, Politico’s Morning Agriculture reports.
Smithfield has already announced its plan to appeal this decision.
What this means is that, even though this North Carolina jury awarded the plaintiffs $5 million in compensatory damages, each individual is likely only to receive $225,000 (or triple the value of the $75,000 in compensatory damages). Had the new legislation not passed last year, that $75,000 figure might have been much higher since it would’ve included money that accounted for reduction in quality of life.
Muhammad says she isn’t familiar with the state’s specific limits on punitive damages, but for her, the win is about more than money. “Even if that’s the case, the victory is in making this industry pay for the damages they’ve done to people. They were looking to walk scot-free,” she says.
The jury’s decision did not include a mandate that Murphy Brown change its manure management practices, but Muhammad says she hopes the pork industry will see the writing on the wall.
The plaintiffs’ win may prove inspirational for other communities where residents are organizing against industrial agriculture’s interests. “I believe that this case, this judgment in North Carolina, is really going to send a strong message to communities across the country that are threatened by industrial farms that they don’t have to take it, they don’t have to take being rolled over by these huge industries,” says Kendra Kimbirauskas, CEO of the Socially Responsible Agricultural Project, an advocacy group that organizes in opposition to factory farms. “It’s definitely going to give folks hope and keep them fighting back.”
“I tell you, it is pretty historic.”
Smithfield has already announced its plan to appeal, Indy Week reports. In a statement, the company called the lawsuits an “outrageous” attack on animal agriculture, adding that “from the beginning, the lawsuits have been nothing more than a money grab by a big litigation machine.”
According to Politico’s Morning Agriculture, Murphy Brown could potentially appeal to place the blame on its contractor, Kinlaw Farm, which was not named as a defendant in the original lawsuit. That would mean that the growers—not Murphy Brown or Smithfield, who handle everything except the actual animals and their manure—would be responsible for paying the damages.
“The industry owns everything except the waste, that’s what the growers have been told,” Muhammad says. “They [the industry] own the animals, they own the feed, they own the trucks.” She says she hopes contract growers will be spurred to act when they realize they may have to foot the bill for the Murphy Brown lawsuits.
“Maybe this will encourage the growers to take a stand, because they need to take a stance on this industry as well,” she adds. “They were sold a bag of goods that was full of ants.”
USDA Slams EU’s Decision On Regulating Gene-Edited Products
July 30, 2018
These non-browning mushrooms, which were gene-edited, need no special approval by the USDA in the United States, but if they were sent to European Union countries, they'd face the same regulations as GMOs. ( File photo )
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is calling out a recent ruling in the European Union that puts products from new “gene editing” methods such as CRISPR in the same category of all techniques for genetically modified organisms.
In doing so, newer “mutagenesis” methods that introduce no foreign DNA into a new product will face the same regulatory barriers in European Union countries as GMOs.
“Government policies should encourage scientific innovation without creating unnecessary barriers or unjustifiably stigmatizing new technologies,” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in the release. “Unfortunately, this week’s (European Court of Justice) ruling is a setback in this regard in that it narrowly considers newer genome editing methods to be within the scope of the European Union’s regressive and outdated regulations governing genetically modified organisms.”
The USDA must approve of GMOs, such as the Arctic apple varieties available for sale in the U.S.
Fruit and vegetable products are rare with the new gene-edited methods. A CRISPR — clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats — white button mushroom from Pennsylvania State University was engineered to resist browning by researchers deleting genes.
That mushroom was the first CRISPR product considered by the USDA for regulation. The USDA said it would not have to meet the agency’s approval in April 2016, but has not been brought to market yet.
According to the USDA, innovations in precision biotechnology “hold great promise.”
“The global regulatory treatment of genome-edited agricultural products has strategic innovation and trade implications for U.S. agriculture,” Perdue said in the release. “For this reason, USDA has clear science- and risk-based policies that enable needed innovation while continuing to ensure these products are safe. In light of the ECJ ruling, USDA will re-double its efforts to work with partners globally towards science- and risk-based regulatory approaches.”
The University of Florida, through a $466,000 multi-year USDA grant, is undertaking a consumer education program on genetically modified foods, in particular, the difference between CRISPR/other gene-editing methods and transgenic breeding methods, where the foreign genetic material is introduced into an organism.
“This ruling is short-sighted and will affect investment in breeding innovation,” said Brandon McFadden, former University of Florida professor who was working on the project. “The ruling seeks to apply the precautionary principle to breeding techniques, which if applied to all production inputs would result in producers still using walking plows.
“Moreover, this ruling will impact both conventional and organic producers because it is not limited to gene-edited crops. Mutagenesis is also now considered a GMO,” said McFadden, who joins the University of Delaware as a professor Aug. 1.
Related Topics: Produce Tech USDA Europe
UPDATED: McDonald’s Supplier Fresh Express Aids In Investigation
UPDATED: McDonald’s Supplier Fresh Express Aids In Investigation
August 1, 2018 (UPDATED, Aug. 2)
A July 27 chopped romaine-carrot mix recall by Fresh Express, Salinas, Calif., for possible cyclospora parasites led Caito Foods LLC, Indianapolis, to pull 25 deli salads and wrap products from retailers. The list includes Caesar salads with chicken, Cobb salads, taco salad and chicken Caesar wraps. No illnesses have been linked to any of the products.
The Food and Drug Administration, however, reported in a July 31 notice that Fresh Express was the supplier to McDonald’s in the earlier cluster of cyclospora infections. The fast-food company’s website notices on the outbreak do not name the supplier.
The FDA also posted information related to the July 27 chopped romaine/carrot mix recall. The FDA confirmed the presence of cyclospora in expired salad mix processed by Fresh Express’ Streamwood, Ill., plant.
The FDA’s testing of an unused bag of lettuce from a McDonald’s was completed July 26. The lettuce’s expiration date was July 19. On July 27, the FDA informed Fresh Express, according to the notice.
“Fresh Express committed to using recall procedures to inform companies that received additional products of concern about the sample result,” according to the FDA notice. “Fresh Express also reported that the carrots in the sampled salad mix only went to McDonald’s.”
McDonald’s stopped using Fresh Express salad mix in Ill., Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Montana, North Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri and on July 13.
As of Aug. 2, 395 people in 15 states (consumers in four of those states purchased the salads while in other states) have become ill and 16 people have been hospitalized in connection with the outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Barbara Hines, a Fresh Express spokeswoman, said the company on July 27 recalled a limited number of expired institutional salad products “not marked or intended for retail sale” after a single random sample test of a romaine-carrot mix yielded a positive result for the cyclospora organism.
“Fresh Express notified affected institutional customers to confirm that the expired recalled products were removed or had already been removed from inventories, or from the stream of commerce if they had been repackaged and relabeled for consumer sale,” Hines said in a July 31 e-mail.
“Along with the rest of the industry, Fresh Express is hopeful public health investigators will identify a definitive source for the cyclospora outbreak clusters soon,” Hines said in the e-mail. “The Fresh Express food safety team is working vigilantly with public health agencies and outside experts to assist in the investigation in any way possible.”
Recalled lettuce products were packaged for foodservice use in multi-pound clear plastic packs; they did not have the Fresh Express logo and were not marked or intended for retail sale as packaged.
A list from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on July 30 shows the products were destined for Gordon Food Service, Caito Food Distribution and retailers Trader Joe’s, Kroger and Walgreen’s. Products shipped to the retailers are noted as “RFG.” Product photos supplied by the USDA show some of the recalled items carry the Renaissance Food Group’s Garden Highway Brand.
The FSIS issued the public health alert because products containing meat and poultry fall under the USDA jurisdiction.
Note on update: On Aug. 2, the CDC increased the number of illnesses to 395 — an increase of more than 100 cases from a July 31 report.
Related Topics: Romaine Outbreak Foodservice FDA USDA
Smart Home Farms To Enhance Food Security In The UAE
July 31, 12018
The UAE Office for Future Food Security and Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) have announced a strategic partnership to enhance food security in the country.
The collaboration aims to address future challenges by developing joint initiatives that enhance the country’s capacity and competitiveness in critical sectors related to future food security.
Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, Minister of State for Future Food Security, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdar
The agreement was signed at the Masdar headquarters in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi by Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, Minister of State for Future Food Security, and Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Chief Executive Officer of Masdar.
“This strategic partnership is the cornerstone of achieving future food security objectives – an important step in activating plans to meet the challenges of this vital cause and invest in its opportunities,” said Almheiri.
“Masdar was a natural partner, given its experience working in sustainability through tangible projects in Masdar City and their renewable energy assets globally.
“This collaboration signifies an important step towards advancing innovations in agricultural production mechanisms and sustainable solutions to the challenges facing the agriculture industry in the UAE. It will also contribute to raising awareness about new, innovative solutions to enhance food availability and sustainable agriculture, and support emerging companies in the sector, boosting future food security in accordance with the UAE Vision 2021.”
According to Almheiri, future food security is a key focus of the UAE government, a reflection of the leadership’s far-sighted vision, which sets the well-being, prosperity and food availability of its citizens and residents at the top of its agenda. “This has led to close cooperation between the government and private entities to achieve the objectives of future food security, through an integrated system of joint work. The outcome aims to develop the necessary infrastructure, and implement practical approaches based on the latest scientific research findings.”
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focuses on two major initiatives, a vertical farming container pilot project, and a smart home farm.
The vertical farming container programme will see a pilot facility established in Masdar City, where the latest technologies and best practices in controlled environment farming will be tested. The project will also contribute to defining the business and regulatory guidelines for the development of vertical farming in the country.
Meanwhile, the Smart Home Farm is an initiative to be developed in connection with Masdar City’s Eco-Villa, conceived as a template for affordable and highly energy- and water-efficient residential villas in the UAE.
The Smart Home Farm initiative will help showcase emerging sustainable home and urban farming technologies and solutions from local and international suppliers.
Masdar’s Al Ramahi, said, “Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is already a highly successful testbed for research into sustainable food production and today, as the city’s community of residents, office workers and visitors continues to grow, we are exploring further opportunities to combine sustainable farming with low-carbon urban development, including vertical farming methods and home farming technologies integrated within our Eco-Villa concept.”
Collaborating with the UAE Office for Future Food Security will help to raise awareness of these efforts and the benefits of sustainable food produce, encourage innovation, and promote further public-private involvement in food security projects.”
Poisoning Our Kids
One of the primary responsibilities of parents is to protect their kids. But how do you protect your child from pesticide exposure, when nearly 77 percent of all foods contain pesticide residues?
In his new book, “Poisoning Our Children: The Parents’ Guide to the Myths of Safe Pesticides,” André Leu challenges the chemical agriculture industry’s assertion that “when used as directed,” pesticides, herbicides and insecticides are “safe.”
Leu, who is international director of Regeneration International, outlines research that not only contradicts industry claims of safety but also reveals how exposure to toxic chemicals is even more dangerous for kids than it is for adults.
In a 2014 interview with Dr. Mercola, Leu says:
“Children, when we talk about the unborn, the newborn and grown children up to puberty, they do not have the detoxification enzymes in their livers that we have as adults. Particularly for young children, that means they have no way of detoxifying even the smallest amount of a pesticide or a chemical.”
According to Leu, scientists report that when children are exposed to even small amounts of pesticides—either in the womb, through breastfeeding or as a toddler eating food—their nervous, endocrine and reproductive systems can be negatively affected.
How to Store Fresh Herbs So They Actually Last
By Emma Stessman
A caprese salad is incomplete without a handful of freshly chopped basil. And that low-sugar mojito? It wouldn’t be nearly as refreshing without the muddled mint leaves.
Fresh herbs add a ton of flavor (not to mention some serious nutrients!) to almost any recipe. But often, you buy a bundle with a salad or cocktail in mind and the unused leaves quickly shrivel up in the fridge before you can use them again. And having to throw a whole bunch of parsley in the trash is painful when you think about protecting the environment and when you think about your wallet.
However, if you learn to store herbs the right way, many can last up to two weeks, giving you plenty of time to make a couple more caprese salads or a flavorful tomato-basil chicken breast (a super easy and delicious dinner, BTW).
We’ve rounded up a few essential tips for storing some of the most popular herbs, below.
How to Store Fresh Herbs
Cilantro
Emily Dixon of One Lovely Life says to treat cilantro like a bouquet of flowers. Place a bundle of cilantro in a jar or cup filled with water and store it in the refrigerator. To keep the moisture in and the flavors fresh, cover the top with a plastic bag. As long as you change the water every few days, Dixon says this method of storing cilantro will basically guarantee it stays fresh for at least one week, but more often than not it should last for two.
RECIPE: Cilantro Lime Avocado Yogurt Dip
Parsley
To keep parsley fresh, you can use the exact same method as you would for cilantro. But if you’re pressed for fridge space and can’t squeeze a whole jar full of parsley between your groceries, Taste of Home suggests storing the herb in a paper towel. Make sure you shake off any excess moisture (to prevent mold), wrap the bundle in a paper towel, and place the whole thing in a Ziploc bag in the fridge.
Rosemary
According to LeafTV, the paper towel and Ziploc method can also be used to store rosemary for around 10 to 14 days. But, if you’re trying to cut down on your plastic usage (kudos to you!), you can also wrap the rosemary in a slightly damp kitchen towel and place it in a reusable glass container. With all that fresh rosemary, you won’t be able to resist making these rosemary spiced nuts for a midday snack.
Basil
Similar to cilantro and parsley, basil should be stored in a jar or cup filled with water and covered with a plastic bag. But here’s one super common mistake you could be making: basil shouldn’t be kept in the fridge. In fact, Food52 says refrigeration tends to turn the leaves black. Instead, keep it at room temperature, ideally on your counter, away from the sun.
Mint
StreetSmart Kitchen’s Sharon Chen says you can use either the bouquet method (unlike basil, you definitely want to put mint in the fridge) or the same paper towel and Ziploc bag strategy used for rosemary and parsley. Mint is also a great water enhancer. If you know you’re not going to use the rest of the mint within two weeks, Chen suggests chopping up a handful of leaves and adding them to your freezer tray with water to create some super refreshing ice cubes to add to iced tea or H2O. Or you can just drop the leaves in a pitcher, no freezing required.
(Photos: Shutterstock)
Summer Of Recalls: These Foods Could Make You Sick
This summer has seen several foods withdrawn from the supermarket shelves – including some that could be your favorite snacks. Crackers, turkey and Spam are on the list for being recently linked to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses including salmonella in New York.
You may want to check the label before eating these foods.
By Lindsay Ireland, Patch Staff | Jul 27, 2018 5:33 pm ET
NEW YORK, NY — It's the summer of recalls.
This summer has seen several foods withdrawn from the supermarket shelves – including some that could be your favorite snacks. Crackers, turkey and Spam are on the list for being recently linked to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses including salmonella in New York.
Here's a list of the big-name products with active recalls in the state. Be sure to check your labels before consuming any of these foods.
Goldfish
These four kinds of your favorite orange fish with these codes are on the list for recall:
- Flavor Blasted Xtra Cheddar
- Flavor Blasted Sour Cream & Onion
- Goldfish Baked with Whole Grain Xtra Cheddar
- Goldfish Mix Xtra Cheddar + Pretzel
Different packaging options are part of the recall. Check out this chartto learn more.
Ritz Crackers
On the same day Pepperidge Farm announced its Goldfish recall, Mondelez International had a recall of its own. Certain types of Ritz cracker sandwiches and Ritz Bits snacks may be contaminated with salmonella, the company said.
More than a dozen products in various different types of packaging are now being recalled in the U.S., including its territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: Ritz Bits Cheese Cracker Sandwiches in various packaging, Ritz Cheese Cracker Sandwiches, Ritz Bacon Cracker Sandwiches with Cheese Filling, Ritz Everything Crackers and Mixed Cookie Cracker variety packs. Find out more here.
Honey Smacks
All boxes of Honey Smacks cereal were recalled last month due to salmonella that has sickened at least 100 people in 33 states. At least 11 New York residents have fallen ill, with eight in Pennsylvania and four in New Jersey.
"Check your pantry for Kellogg's Honey Smacks cereal and do not eat it," the Centers for Disease Control said in a July 14 tweet, adding in an earlier tweet that this is the only Kellogg's cereal affected by the outbreak.
The agency's outbreak report warned all consumers to toss all packages of this cereal, no matter the package size or best-by date. Click here for more information on this recall.
Raw Turkey
At least 90 people in 26 states, New York included, have fallen ill due to salmonella tied to raw turkey.
A variety of products from several sources are contaminated and have infected U.S. residents throughout the nation, including at least eight in New York.
The sickened have reported eating various brands and types of turkey products purchased from many locations, the CDC said. Two of them lived in a household where raw turkey pet food was fed to their animals.
A single supplier that could be responsible for the outbreak has yet to be identified in any of the samples taken from any raw or live turkey products, and a recall has yet to be issued.
Spam
In May, more than 200,000 pounds of Spam were recalled after consumers complained of metal objects in their canned meat, the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service said. Some even sustained "minor oral injuries" from the chicken and pork product.
Check your Spam: Any 12-ounce metal can of Spam Classic with a "best by" date of February 2021 may have the same issue. Click here for more information.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
Chipotle Reopens Ohio Restaurant Following Customer Illnesses
Traci Whittaker, a spokeswoman for the health department in Delaware County, said they had received more than 100 calls related to the investigation.
By Craig Giammona and Shelly Hagan
July 31, 2018
Mexican chain had closed site ‘out of an abundance of caution’
Local health officials say probe into cause continuing
Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. reopened a restaurant in Ohio on Tuesday that was temporarily closed after customers reported getting sick.
The restaurant, located in the city of Powell, was voluntarily closed for cleaning on Monday after local health officials and the company received reports of employees and customers complaining of nausea, diarrhea and cramping. The news sent Chipotle’s shares down as much as 8.5 percent Tuesday as investors grappled with another round of negative headlines tied to the Mexican chain.
A spokeswoman for Chipotle confirmed that the restaurant had reopened. She earlier said the location had been closed out of an “abundance of caution” after the company was told by local officials of two customers complaining of illness.
Traci Whittaker, a spokeswoman for the health department in Delaware County, said they had received more than 100 calls related to the investigation. A cause of the outbreak hasn’t been determined, but “if samples are given and delivered to the lab, we may have results by Friday or the beginning of next week.”
“They are complaints, but nothing can be confirmed without laboratory testing,” Whittaker said, referring to the calls.
After falling for three consecutive years, the Chipotle’s shares had spiked 61 percent in 2018 prior to the news of the illnesses in Ohio. The biggest intraday slide in a month sent the stock as low as $425.88 on Tuesday. Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management is the chain’s biggest shareholder.
The latest round of negative headlines comes amid renewed optimism on Wall Street that the chain can mount a comeback under Chief Executive Officer Brian Niccol, the Taco Bell veteran who took over in March. Prior to Tuesday, the Mexican chain had been recovering from a food-safety crisis that battered its brand. Chipotle recently posted same-stores sales that beat estimates for the second quarter as Niccol starts to reshape the company, with new menu items, increased marketing, a delivery push and store remodels.
The chain was upgraded to buy from hold by Andy Barish, an analyst at Jefferies, in a research note sent to clients early Tuesday. He cited the shift to digital sales and operational improvements that should help boost sales. Barish said Tuesday in an email that he was not changing his view on the company in light of the incident.
This “appears to be an isolated incidence in Ohio,” he said, calling it “obviously unfortunate but not indicative” of the changes and training improvements the chain has put in place.
Local health records available online indicate that restaurant inspectors visited the Ohio restaurant, located about 18 miles north of Columbus, on July 26 and found lettuce and beans that weren’t stored at the proper temperature. The Delaware General Health District, the county agency, said it was notified about three days later that five patrons who ate at the restaurant were sick. They got an additional two reports the next day. The records also indicate that as many as five employees of the restaurant got sick.
Local official visited the restaurant on Tuesday and “did not find anything that would prevent them from opening.”
(Updates with restaurant reopening and info from local health officials.)
USDA: Organic Labels Must Be Removed From Fumigated Imports
In a joint letter, linked at the bottom of this article, to all Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) licensees, the USDA Fair Trade Practices Program and National Organic Program remind U.S. importers that agricultural products treated with a substance prohibited by the USDA organic regulations, or that undergo ionizing radiation, may not be sold, labeled or represented as organic.
PACA licensees who sell or label such treated products as organic may be subject to penalties under the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) and the PACA.
PACA licensed individuals and firms may broker, handle or sell organic agricultural products. PACA licensees who broker organic imports may not need to be certified as organic, however, they are responsible for ensuring that imported organic commodities comply with all the requirements of the USDA organic regulations.
AMS enforces the USDA organic regulations for domestic and imported organic agricultural products through the National Organic Program.
The full joint letter can be found here.
For more information; USDA Press
E-mail: press@oc.usda.gov
Publication date: 7/19/2018
Can Florida’s Toxic Algae Be Stopped?
Toxic blue-green algae has bloomed again in Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest lake, an outbreak so severe that Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in seven counties.
Can Florida’s Toxic Algae Be Stopped?
JUL 18, 2018
The algae blooms pose risks to humans and marine animals—and to Florida’s tourism-dependent economy.
Toxic blue-green algae have bloomed again in Lake Okeechobee, Florida’s largest lake, an outbreak so severe that Governor Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency in seven counties. While the term “algae bloom” might not sound dangerous, it is an outbreak of cyanobacteria that presents a significant risk to public health.
In early July, the bloom was reported to cover more than 90 percent of Lake Okeechobee’s surface. The green sludge has crept outward from the lake and filled waterways with a putrid sludge that locals say smells like mold. News reports are warning residents to keep children and animals away from contaminated water. According to the CDC, ingesting it—including through consumption of marine animals like oysters—is the most dangerous type of exposure. Effects can include skin, nose, eye, and throat irritation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
What’s causing the bloom?
Pollution and warm water fuel the algae’s growth. Research from the U.S. EPA suggests that fertilizer runoff is introducing phosphorous and nitrogen to waterways, essentially fertilizing the algae.
Another factor is water flow. The Everglades, a wetland ecosystem, naturally flows from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay. But since 1910, a series of more and more robust dikes have been built to contain that flow. The current dike system, called the Herbert Hoover Dike, is made up of about 143 miles of levees. Additional canals divert the flow to the east and west coasts.
With the natural flow of the Everglades staunched, water builds up when it rains. Then the algae blooms again, and like clockwork, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tries to relieve Lake Okeechobee’s water levels by discharging more water along the canals. This increases the concentration of fresh water in the estuary, giving the cyanobacteria even more opportunity to thrive.
Lake Okeechobee in 2016. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)
“The Army Corps has been releasing a lot of water from Lake Okeechobee, and, in combination with the rain runoff from the basin, it’s compressed the estuary so that it’s mostly fresh [water] now—which is what cyanobacteria like,” said John Cassani of Calusa Waterkeeper, a nonprofit that’s part of the Waterkeeper Alliance. “So cutting back on those fresh-water inflows would increase the salinity of the estuary, and hopefully discourage the continued growth of this cyanobacteria.”
When the Army Corps discharges water from Lake Okeechobee, it increases the concentration of fresh water in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, giving the cyanobacteria even more opportunity to thrive there—while interrupting the Everglades’ natural southward flow.
Others point to the role of agriculture, especially Florida’s massive sugar industry. Peter Girard, a spokesperson from the environmental group Bull Sugar, said, “Sugarcane needs water when Florida is dry, and it needs drainage when Florida is wet. The industry has secured policy and practice from both state and federal authorities to give them that at the expense of everyone else in Florida.”
For years, Florida environmentalists have complained that agricultural runoff from and water mismanagement by “Big Sugar” cause damage to Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. Grassroots pushes for the state to buy back land from sugar companies go back two decades. Many contracts and pieces of legislation have been signed and then nixed.
Buying back land could help
Still, organizations including the Everglades Trust and the Sierra Club have joined with a long list of companies, such as Yeti and Costa, to champion SB10, the latest iteration of the state’s land buyback scheme (also known as the Now or Neverglades Declaration).
SB10 was introduced into the Florida State Senate in January 2017 and approved by Governor Scott by that May. The bill calls for the creation of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, in the region called the Everglades Agricultural Area. If the construction of the reservoir is executed as planned, freshwater will be able to flow southward rather than in forced discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. The new southward flow would alleviate the toxic algae blooms and help save the state’s fragile ecosystems. Last week, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget approved the reservoir project.
Legislators have suggested other ways to solve the algae-bloom problem, like increasing salinity in areas plagued with blooms. But Chris Wittman, co-founder and program director of the nonprofit Captains for Clear Water, said these measures would amount to treating the symptoms of a disease instead of its root cause.
“The reason we’re in this [mess] this year is manmade manipulation of a natural system,” Wittman said. “So the idea is not to manipulate it farther. The idea is to get that system back to functioning with delivery and timing as close to the natural cycle as possible.”
Meanwhile, another type of algae bloom, red tide, has been killing fish in the Gulf of Mexico. The two blooms are sending tremors through businesses in a state that is known for its natural beauty and depends on tourism. In 2013, a year that was plagued by algae blooms and the deaths of hundreds of manatees, more than 90 percent of hotels in Fort Myers Beach reported cancellations related to water conditions.
About the Author
Rebecca Renner is a freelance writer and editor living in Boynton Beach, Florida.
Hawaii Becomes First State in the U.S. To Ban Chlorpyrifos
Hawai'i Becomes First State in the U.S. To Ban Chlorpyrifos
JUNE 14, 2018
Hawaii Becomes First State in the U.S. to Ban Chlorpyrifos
The toxic pesticide has been linked to asthma and developmental delays in children
HONOLULU, HAWAIʻI — Yesterday, Hawai'i made history as Governor Ige signed SB 3095 into law and Hawai'i became the first state in the U.S. to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, a neurotoxin that causes significant damage to brain development in children. The pesticide's detrimental health effects led the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Obama administration to propose banning all of its agricultural uses, but the Pruitt-led EPA under the current administration reversed this pledge.
In addition to banning chlorpyrifos, the bill creates 100 foot no-spray buffer zones around schools and requires large-scale pesticide users to disclose the Restricted Use Pesticides (RUPs) they are spraying. Center for Food Safety (CFS) provided significant legal and policy assistance to this effort, including helping draft the legislation, lobby for its passage, and encourage public participation in the legislative process. CFS also published the first-ever analysis of pesticide use data and its relationship to field trials of genetically engineered crops in Hawai'i.
Andrew Kimbrell, executive director of Center for Food Safety, which has consistently championed for regulation of pesticide use in the State of Hawai'i and nationally, emphasized that the passage of this bill is a stepping stone towards even stronger legislation:
"Hawai'i is prioritizing the health of its children and the environment over industry preferences. Hawai'i is taking action that Pruitt's EPA refused to take by banning chlorpyrifos," said Kimbrell. "Hawai'i is courageously taking the first step towards pesticide policies that will provide for more protection for children as well as more transparency. We believe that other states will follow Hawai'i's lead."
Ashley Lukens, director of Hawaiʻi Center for Food Safety, applauded the community for their unwavering tenacity in this nearly decade-long battle for better public health protections. "The families of Hawaiʻi have fought year after year, against millions of dollars of industry spending, all for these basic protections from dangerous pesticides. During these dark Trumpian times, we need stories like this to remind ourselves that when we persevere, we win. As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "The arch of history is long but it bends towards justice."
SB 3095 represents a turning point for Hawaii and marks a new chapter for its residents, who have repeatedly demanded protection against pesticide harms. The world's largest agrichemical companies, such as Monsanto, Dow, and Syngenta, experiment and develop their genetically engineered crops in Hawaii.
Because the majority of these crops are engineered to resist herbicides, testing and development of these crops result in the repeated spraying of dangerous chemicals. Many of their operations are adjacent to schools and residential areas, putting children and public health at risk. Voluntarily reported pesticide use data shows that these companies apply thousands of gallons and pounds of RUPs in Hawaii each year.
In 2013 and 2014, the counties of Kauaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island passed ordinances to regulate the pesticide practices of the GE seed industry. Despite the broad popular support, the industry responded by suing each of the counties, arguing that the county lacked the authority to regulate pesticides. CFS attorneys defended the Counties in Federal Court. Unfortunately, the ordinances were overturned, forcing community members to pivot their efforts to the state.
Since 2015 a coalition of community members led, in part, by CFS, introduced legislation each year asking for a statewide framework for no-spray buffer zones and disclosure. Thousands of people testified each session in support of the bill's passage. Much of the testimony can be found on the HCFS Facebook page.
The bill, which goes into effect in July 2018, will ban chlorpyrifos by January 2019. Any user that wishes to continue using chlorpyrifos may do so only by applying for an exemption with the State. No exemption will be granted after 2022. The mandatory reporting and no-spray zone provisions are effectively immediately with no exemptions.
McDonald’s Removes Salads Linked to Intestinal Parasite Outbreak in Midwest
Public health officials in Illinois and Iowa have reported a surge in cases of cyclosporiasis, with at least 15 infections in Iowa and 90 others in Illinois.
McDonald’s Removes Salads Linked to Intestinal Parasite Outbreak in Midwest
McDonald’s said it had stopped selling salads at about 3,000 locations in the Midwest after cases of cyclosporiasis were reported in Iowa and Illinois.CreditKeith Srakocic/Associated Press
By Matthew Haag
- July 13, 2018
McDonald’s pulled salads from 3,000 restaurants in the Midwest after health experts announced that more than 100 people had been infected by an intestinal parasite in recent weeks.
Public health officials in Illinois and Iowa have reported a surge in cases of cyclosporiasis, with at least 15 infections in Iowa and 90 others in Illinois. Everyone who became ill in Iowa and about a quarter of those who became sick in Illinois said they had eaten McDonald’s salads in the days before symptoms appeared, according to the states’ health departments.
“Although a link has been made to salads sold in McDonald’s restaurants in some Illinois cases, public health officials continue to investigate other sources,” Dr. Nirav D. Shah, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, said on Thursday.
McDonald’s said Friday that “out of an abundance of caution,” it had stopped selling salads at the restaurants and was working to remove the lettuce from those locations and distribution centers. The company said it was switching to another lettuce supplier at those locations.
“McDonald’s is committed to the highest standards of food safety and quality control,” the company said in a statement. “We are closely monitoring this situation and cooperating with state and federal public health authorities as they further investigate.”
Cyclosporiasis is caused by a microscopic parasite, known as cyclospora, found in food or water that has been contaminated with feces. Although rarely fatal, the infection can cause severe nausea, fatigue, and diarrhea for more than a week. Symptoms typically appear within a few days of infection.
Health officials in both Illinois and Iowa said that people who experienced similar symptoms after eating at McDonald’s should contact a doctor for testing and possible treatment.
The cases in Illinois first appeared in mid-May, while the illnesses in Iowa were more recent, surfacing in late June and early July.
They were announced as state and federal health authorities investigate another outbreak of 225 cases in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin that have been tied to Fresh Del Monte Produce vegetable trays.
Cyclosporiasis has been reported in the United States since the mid-1990s after the country started to import significantly more food, particularly fresh fruit and vegetables. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has investigated more than 2,000 cases of cyclosporiasis since 2000. Past outbreaks have been blamed on basil from Peru, snow peas from Guatemala and cilantro from Mexico.
Follow Matthew Haag on Twitter: @matthewhaag.
A version of this article appears in print on July 13, 2018, on Page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: McDonald’s Stops Selling Salads Tied To Outbreak.
Indoor Farmers Are “Way Too Complacent” About Food Safety
Indoor Farmers Are “Way Too Complacent” About Food Safety
“If you mess up indoors, everything is magnified,” says Sarah Taber.
Taber is an independent food safety consultant specializing in indoor farming. Previously she served as director of food safety for The Aquaponics Association after earning a Doctorate of Plant Medicine. At the association, she saw startups pitch to investors a risk-free way of farming, and that’s where the worrying began, says Taber.
Since then she has worked with half a dozen hydroponic indoor farming operations of various sizes, funding sources, and technologies and her early worries are now full-blown concerns about the safety of the food grown on indoor farming for consumers. And with food safety scandals increasingly hitting the headlines — just last month thousands of pounds of romaine lettuce were recalled when 200 people became ill and five died — it’s time some indoor ag players stopped being “way too complacent” and woke up to the dangers, says Taber. (She chose not to name the farms due to non-disclosure agreements.)
Often called controlled environment agriculture (CEA), indoor farming is not new. Commercial greenhouses have been around since the 1920s, but in the last few years, CEA startups have started to raise large amounts of funding for high tech farming operations, often in urban areas. The basic formula is a controlled environment — where the temperature and ventilation can be controlled — soilless growing, using some form of hydroponics system, and in some cases, artificial light from specially designed LEDs. The promises of these farms are many: decrease the distance food must travel from farm to table, use less water and fewer agrochemicals, grow seasonal items all year round and in climates where it otherwise would not be possible.
Controlling every variable from temperature to humidity to plant nutrition while using artificial light perfectly calibrated for each plant is a pitch that has obviously sparked the imagination of the public and investors when you look at the more than $300 million invested in the space last year. And it can be a very good business. Just ask the Netherlands, which is second only to the US in food exports despite having 270 times less landmass thanks to its prolific CEA industry.
But a controlled environment does not automatically mean produce is exempt from food safety issues. And with investor appetite for big-ticket, high-tech indoor farms growing, particularly in the US, the sector is full of relatively new players growing plants and businesses very quickly — many spreading the idea that indoor farms are plant factories where the outcome is as assured as a Detroit auto assembly line.
The proclaimed dominance of technology over biology by this category of entrepreneurs has left some food safety experts concerned that consumers could be getting the wrong idea and startups may be drinking their own kool-aid.
“As a consultant, a lot of my time is spent grief counseling people over the loss of the innocence they had when they thought that food safety wasn’t a problem [indoors],” says Taber. “When you’re outside you have air circulation and sunlight that can brush back some of your mistakes. Temperature and humidity can get out of control indoors in a way it can’t outdoors and that can grow bacteria,” she continues.
What’s the risk? People and a lack of vigilance
It’s true; growing indoors inside a building or other structure can protect plants from contamination from above, like bird droppings and chemical drift. Isolated from other farming operations also means that the plants are safe from the inadvertent spreading of agrochemicals or animal waste — major causes of salmonella and e. Coli contamination in outdoor farming.
But, based on currently available CEA technology, indoor farmers are not immune to other food safety challenges, says Jeff Brandenburg. Vigilance is still very much needed.
Brandenburg is president of the JSB Group, a Massachusetts-based consultancy for every link in the produce supply chain. He has a masters degree in food safety and teaches good agricultural practices at various universities including UC Davis. He says that local farming, no matter the growing method, is often perceived as safer, not just by the public, but by the growers.
“You get these greenhouses and high tech operations that don’t have a fundamental understanding of food safety and how it works, and they think that it’s not their problem because of how their farms are built; that’s a problem,” says Brandenburg. “It might be slightly safer because you’re in a more controlled environment, but if that controlled environment gets out of control, then you’ve got a big problem. Bacteria is not biased. It doesn’t grow more on the west coast than it does on the east coast,” he adds.
All of the experts consulted for this report emphasized that people are the number one source of food safety problems in indoor farming. People bring in bacteria on clothes, shoes, and skin. With proper controls such as hairnets, face masks, foot baths, single-use or clean suits, the risk can be mitigated, but there is still plenty of room for error and these practices are not commonplace all over the industry.
Though eventual automation is part of the promise of the major indoor farming technology companies, it hasn’t become a reality in any meaningful way yet, so there are still a lot of people involved.
“Everybody’s talking about automation, but nobody is actually doing it, so there’s a huge amount of contact from workers. That’s the same as outdoor farming,” says Taber.
How is all this monitored?
The food safety of most commercial farms, indoor or outdoor, is monitored through audits and certifications where an outside body verifies that food safety practices and preventative measures are being carried out over varying lengths of time — sometimes several hours, sometimes several days.
The government body that oversees foods safety in the US is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but historically they have played a larger role in the aftermath of an outbreak than in its prevention.
The real pressure to keep up standards (other than the honest and genuine desire not to hurt people) comes from retailers that often require audits before they take on a new vendor and increasingly send their own auditors directly to farms.
The most stringent and widely-recognized family of audits are under the umbrella of the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which was established by the industry in 2000 to reduce food safety risks and streamline the audit process in an effort to lower costs for operators while improving overall food safety. GFSI certifications include Primus GFS Food Safety Management Systems, Global Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), Canada GAP, and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points — HACCP, and SQF – considered to be the most stringent audit of the group.
The USDA also offers a Good Agricultural Practices audit, which experts say is less stringent than the GFSI certifications, but is accepted by some retailers.
Venture-backed certifications
We asked some of the major venture-backed US indoor farms what certifications they had achieved. https://www.brightfarms.com/ and Bowery Farming both have SQF certifications. Plenty and Gotham Greens are both GFSI GAP certified (Gotham Greens manufacturing facilities for pesto and other products are comparably certified) and AeroFarms is USDA GAP certified.
A lack of advanced certifications does not necessarily mean that the practices required to pass such an audit are not in place, say several farmers consulted for this report. Farms often build their food safety capacity over time and only go through the time and expense of an audit when processes are finalized and unlikely to change.
Paul Lightfoot, CEO of Bright Farms, a hydroponic grower with four farms in four different US states, said that his company only underwent an SQF audit for each of its farms when the design of their farm was finalized and ready to be replicated in all new locations without alteration.
As many of the venture-backed farms are still iterating their technology, advanced certifications may be less likely, but food safety experts pointed out that one thing that makes high food safety standards much easier to achieve is ample funding.
“I don’t think the type of capital matters. I do think an insufficient amount of it might make a difference. Food safety requires investment. It changes the design of your facility. It changes how you staff your facility” says Lightfoot.
But funding is also no guarantee according to Brandenburg, “I’ve worked with a couple of startup operations that were venture capital-backed and the people had wonderful intentions, but knew nothing about the agricultural world. There’s a feeling of how hard can it be?”
On top of audits, farms are also subject to Food and Drug Administration regulation, most importantly the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) — a newly enacted policy that is intended to give the administration better tools for preventing outbreaks rather than simply responding to them.
The first compliance date for the FSMA Produce Rule was January 26, 2018, and farms with annual sales over $500,000 are affected.
The new rule establishes protocols for how produce farmers harvest, wash, package, and store fruits and vegetables usually consumed raw. Standards for microbial water quality, biological soil amendments, managing livestock and wild animals, health and hygiene, and equipment, tools and building make up the majority of the law.
Some experts doubt whether the rule will reduce instances of food-borne illness in a meaningful way, and many small-scale farmers worry about the costs of coming into compliance.
“In the past, it could be a dusty binder sitting on a shelf and when you think you’re going up for an audit you just backfill in information, which is really problematic,” says Allison Kopf, CEO of Agrilyst, a farm management software platform and app for indoor growers. She says that though many farms were ready for FSMA, some used it as on opportunity to digitize some very analog systems of food safety control.
She adds that farmers have a real fear of hurting people and they want regulation that will actually help with that. What they don’t want is regulation that will add to their workload without helping with that.
The CEA Food Safety Coalition
Indoor farming executives speak about the possibility of a foodborne illness stemming from the industry with palpable fear. In order to allay that fear, they’re teaming up – a big deal for an industry laser-focused on proving and registering unique intellectual property.
Next week a group of indoor farming companies will meet at the United Fresh FreshTEC trade show in Chicago to hash out details of a new organization: the Controlled Environment Agriculture Food Safety Coalition.
The group is the brainchild of Lightfoot and counts AeroFarms and Massachusetts hydroponic farm Little Leaf Farms as founding members. Eleven other indoor farms have expressed interest.
Lightfoot said the idea was inspired by the recent romaine lettuce scandal. Bright Farms went through its own scare in the Fall of 2017 when it voluntarily recalled all of its products from four midwest supermarket chains for potential e. Coli risk. No illnesses were reported.
Now the former software executive is working to spread the idea that food safety best practices should never be proprietary, with the knowledge that if one farm has a major food safety incident, all players in this young industry could feel the pain.
The goals of the coalition, according to Lightfoot, are to develop guidelines on food safety and protocols specific to indoor farming; to create a list of resources for coalition members; to establish a board of advisors to help members navigate food safety incidents; to build website to educate growers and address the public when needed.
But a lot is still yet to be decided before the work can even begin. At the conference in Chicago, the farms that have so far shown interest will meet to elect a steering committee. Eventually there may be a certain food safety certification requirement to join, but currently its open to all comers.
And while the industry is hoping and working to never see a major outbreak, Taber says that the outbreaks are the best teachers despite their sometimes tragic results.
“When you get down to it, the way people learn about fallibility, and that you can fail even if you didn’t mean to, is by seeing it happen. folks in the ag industry may not have had an outbreak on their farm, but they know someone its happened to. For them it is real.”
Canadians Expect Mandatory GMO Food Labelling
Dalhousie University Study
Canadians Expect Mandatory GMO Food Labelling
Consumer uncertainty abounds, but some Canadians are ready to embrace the advantages of genetic engineering in foods. They are still somewhat divided on whether they believe genetically modified foods are safe and healthy, but there is an overwhelming belief that GMO food products should be labeled, a new study from Dalhousie University shows.
The preliminary results of the study, titled "Biotechnology in Food: Canadian Attitudes towards Genetic Engineering in both Plant- and Animal-based Foods", are published today. Researchers surveyed 1,046 people to measure Canadian attitudes towards genetic engineering in food, and assess trust toward food safety and the regulatory system in Canada.
According to dal.ca, an overwhelming 70% of survey respondents strongly agreed that GMO food and ingredients should be labeled on all packages. But respondents were divided on whether GMO foods are safe: 37.7% believe them to be safe; 34.7% think they are not. While 35% believe that we understand the health effects, more than 44% believe we do not.
Publication date: 6/13/2018
Emily Griep Joins United Fresh In Food Safety Role
The United Fresh Produce Association has hired Emily Griep as manager of food safety. She recently received her Ph.D. from Cornell University as a U.S. Department of Agriculture National Needs Fellow in the area of food safety for a global economy, according to a news release.
Emily Griep has joined the United Fresh Produce Association as director of food safety. ( Photo courtesy United Fresh )
The United Fresh Produce Association has hired Emily Griep as manager of food safety.
She recently received her Ph.D. from Cornell University as a U.S. Department of Agriculture National Needs Fellow in the area of food safety for a global economy, according to a news release.
She has been a quality associate and quality engineer for General Foods.
“United Fresh has a long history of supporting the food safety needs of the fresh produce industry,” Jennifer McEntire, United Fresh vice president of food safety & technology, who Griep reports to. “The addition of Dr. Griep to the team expands our ability to respond to individual member requests and also proactively develop materials and deliver training that benefits the produce safety community.”
The position is new at United Fresh, and Griep will aid in ongoing initiatives such as the Harmonized Standard, and lead new projects to support the association’s scientific and policy objectives, according to the release.
Griep begins in July but is scheduled to attend the United Fresh Food Safety & Technology Council meeting June 25 in Chicago, at the United FreshTec Expo.
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