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How Can Sprouts Be Made Safer?**
It is a question that arises every time there is a major outbreak of foodborne illness linked to sprouts, such as the E. coli 0104:H4 outbreak in Germany in Spring 2011. Food Protection Report
asked the question of industry, government and consumer representatives. The unanimous reply: sprouts, as with all fresh produce, will always face some contamination risk, but they can be made safer, and ongoing initiatives are making strides.
Barbara Sanderson of Jonathan's Sprouts in Rochester, Mass., put it this way: "I don't believe any raw food will ever be 100 percent safe, but sprouts can be very safe."
Despite the ongoing outbreaks in Germany and France, sprouts are less risky than they were even a few years ago, according to those interviewed. The new virulent organism found in Germany is a special case, says Robert Brackett, director of the Institute of Food Safety and Health at Illinois Institute of Technology, and former director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition,Food and Drug Administration. Though that organism could turn up in the United States, it would be hard to detect because "no one knows what to look for," he says.
Sprouts face special safety challenges because they are derived from seeds mainly grown for use as animal feed rather than for human food, and the field conditions are often not ideal. Cleaning the seeds is difficult. Disinfectants such as bleach can compromise the sprouting processs, and irradiation can decrease survivability of seeds.
A Sprout Safety Task Force that originated under the National Center for Food Safety and Technolgy, will hold meetings over the next six months to make sure the industry is following FDA's Sprout Safety Guidance of 1999. The guidance contains five basic recommendations: seeds for sprouting should be grown using Good Agricultural Practices; after harvesting, they should be cleaned under sanitary conditions; approved seed disinfectant should be applied to seeds immediately before sprouting, and spent irrigation water should be tested for Salmonella and E. coli 0157:H7 48 hours into the sprouting process.
"After that Guidance, sprout outbreaks almost went away" says Brackett. (There were none in 2005, 2006 and 2007.) "So now we are wondering what's going on? Are they not following the guidance?"
Michelle Smith, senior policy analyst in the FDA Office of Food Safety, says, "In our experience, some segments of industry have been conscientious to follow the recommendations and some have not." Also some of those following the recommendations make mistakes -- for example, not using test kits validated for irrigaiton water, she says.
Late last year, explains Smith, FDA "did a field assignment to see what current practices are and the extend to which guidance is being followed. We are now compiling that data." The agency has trained investigators to know what to look for at sprout facilities and has put together a pretty comprehensive set of guidelines for field investigators for conducting inspections and investigations at sprout facilities."
A Sprout Safety Task Force subcommittee, led by the International Sprout Growers Association, has created a safety audit checklist for use by sprouters and third-party auditors. "It is pretty much completed. We are putting it into the hands of sprout people through a public workshop," says Armand Paradis, director of business development at the Institute of Food Safety and Health.
"If every sprout company did everything on the list and got audited by a third party and verified they are doing what they said they were doing, it would certainly make sprouts safer in this country," says Sanderson, who chairs the subcommittee. She also explains that the audit checklist deliberately functions apart from FDA so it can be updated quickly. Regarding the audit checklist requirement to test every batch of irrigation water on a hold-and-release basis, for example, if new sanitation methods come to the fore, they will go into a sanitation appendix that keeps the audit current with scientific progress.
Another subcommittee is working on improving seed safety -- a more daunting task that is moving more slowly because there is not workable kill step. "With seeds three is a debate about the critical points," says Paradis, explaining that "no intervention is known other than some novel technology that needs review."
Looking ahead, Bracket foresees more outbreaks. "Industry must be more vigilant about adhering to guidance documents," he says.
** Reprinted with permission from Food Protection Report
FDA Gets A Dream Team for Hard Times **
Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., slated to head the Food and Drug Administration, is receiving unprecedented praise from constituents and raising expectations of better things to come for the beleaguered agency.
Also boosting the spirits of FDA stakeholders is the appointment of Joshua Sharfstein, M.D., as Principal Deputy Commissioner, and the creation of a Food Safety Working Group to improve food safety laws and enforcement throughout the U.S. government.
Hamburg brings a strong background to the job. In interviews with
Food Protection Report, individuals she worked with over the years uniformly praised her scientific expertise, management skill, political savvy, and ability to work with people to get things done.
"She is able to hold her own in a way that is not off-putting, which is a good commodity to have in a sensitive, high-profile position such as commissioner of FDA," said Louis Sullivan, M.D., secretary of Health and Human Services from 1989 to 1993 and now President Emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine, where he was founding dean and first president. He works with Hamburg on several boards of directors, including that of Henry Shein, Inc.
Former Senator San Numn, who co-chairs the Nuclear Threat Initiative, commended her integrity, good judgment and "strong, intellectual vigor," and called her a "problem solver" who knows how to get things done.
Peter Powers, First Deputy Mayor of NYC when Hamburg was Health Commissioner there, said, "I got to work with her very closely...She had a department that needed a lot of reworking in terms of management. She did that." She also elevated staff morale and citizen confidence, made sure the city paid attention to bioterrorism, and, consequently it probably has the best bioterrorism program in the country, he said.
Powers also cited her achievements in dramatically lowering cases of resistant tuberculosis and raising childhood immunizations to record highs. In addition ,she strengthened restaurant inspections in a period of budget restraints. "I was budget cutter in chief," he recalled. "Peggy was very good at explaining why certian things could not be cut -- or it would cost more money at the end of the year. Food inspection was one of them. She said it was important to keep the right number of inspectors out there. She would say where to cut -- and where you don't want to. And she was right."
Because Hamburg knows how to deal with the budget and also has knowledge of Congress, "I can tell you that the budget she goes to Congress with will clearly set forth priorities for FDA in a way that she can accomplish what she has to," Powers said. Food will get it proper attention. I have no doubt about it. We have had many conversations about food safety...and what will happen to people. She gets it."
The consensus view of Powers and other close observers is that FDA will be giving food its due attention. The FDA leadership choices are "a clear signal that this Administration has placed a priority on bolstering FDA's food safety role," according to the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public ,calls Hamburg "an excellent choice...who has dedicated her life to promoting public health and believes government has an iimportant role to play in promoting public health. Both she and her deputy are attuned to food issues," he said He cited Sharfstein's involvement as Baltimore Health Commissioner with legislation to eliminate trans fat from restaurant food and in setting up a commission on salt consumption.
"Hamburg knows more about food and food safety than any commissioner the day they arrived," said long-time FDA watcher Stephen Grossman, who is president of HPS Group, a regulatory consultant firm. Referring to Hamburg's stint as NYC Health Commissioner, he said, "You cannot run a big city health department with acquiring knowledge of food safety, and she did good things with food outbreaks and restaurant inspection."
Reprinted with the permission of
Food Protection Report.