Trust for America’s Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have issued their eighth annual report, Ready or Not? Protecting the Public from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, which warns that financial woes threaten recent gains made in public health protection. According to a December 14, 2010, TFAH press release, no state scored lower than five on 10 key indicators of public health preparedness, with three states scoring a perfect 10. But the report also cautioned that these developments are now “in real jeopardy due to severe budget cuts by federal, state, and local governments.” In particular, TFAH noted that “10 states do not have an electronic syndromic surveillance system that can report and exchange information to rapidly detect disease outbreaks,” while “21 states were not able to rapidly identify disease-causing E.coli O157:H7 and submit the lab results in 90 percent of cases within four days.” The report also identified “ongoing major…
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A recent National Research Council (NRC) report has apparently found no scientific evidence to support “more stringent testing of meat purchased through the government’s ground beef purchase program,” which distributes products to the National School Lunch Program and other public outlets. According to a December 9, 2010, National Academies press release, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) purchases ground beef from suppliers “who must meet mandatory process, quality, traceback, and handling controls as well as comply with strict limitations on the amounts of bacteria in the meat, such as E. coli and salmonella.” To assess this program, the National Academies established a committee to review the scientific basis of AMS’s ground beef safety standards, evaluate how these standards compare to those used by large retail and commercial purchasers, and recommend possible improvements to the federal system. The committee evidently found that AMS’s “scientific basis for the current…
A federal court in Ohio has determined that, for the most part, an “all-risk” insurance policy excludes from coverage the losses sustained by a meat processor whose products were contaminated with Listeria during processing. HoneyBaked Foods, Inc. v. Affiliated FM Ins. Co., No. 08-01686 (N.D. Ohio, W. Div., decided December 2, 2010). Still, the court ordered the parties to prepare a question for certification to the Ohio Supreme Court as to whether, “notwithstanding the failure of the policy to cover the plaintiff’s loss, such loss might be covered” under a reasonable-expectations theory. According to the court, the meat processor was required to destroy about 1 million pounds of fully cooked ham and turkey products after it was discovered that the Listeria found in product samples matched sludge in a hollow roller that was part of the processing plant’s conveyor system. The company sought coverage for the disposed food products and additional losses…
An Ohio poultry facility linked to the latest egg recall over Salmonella-contamination concerns was reportedly the recipient of a $125 million investment by Austin “Jack” DeCoster, the man who owned the two Iowa farms linked to the August 2010 recall of 550 million potentially contaminated eggs. The Ohio Agriculture Department apparently indicated earlier this year that DeCoster was still an investor in Ohio Fresh Eggs. The latest recall involves nearly 300,000 eggs distributed in eight states. While no confirmed illnesses have been linked to the eggs, egg seller Cal-Maine, Inc. reportedly said “consumers who believe they may have purchased potentially affected shell eggs should not eat them.” According to a news source, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked the August outbreak to at least 1,600 illnesses. DeCoster was called before a House oversight subcommittee in September and apologized for the incident, saying “We were horrified to learn that…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced an extension of the comment period for a draft compliance policy guide that proposes “certain criteria should be considered in recommending enforcement action against animal feed or feed ingredients that are adulterated due to the presence of Salmonella.” FDA will now accept comments until December 31, 2010. Additional information about the draft guidance appears in Issue 359 of this Update. See Federal Register, October 29, 2010.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reportedly confirmed the presence of Listeria monocytogenes at a San Antonio, Texas, processing plant implicated in four deaths. According to a November 3, 2010, FDA press release, the agency’s inspection of SanGar Fresh Cut Produce identified the bacteria “in processed celery and in multiple locations in the plant environment, including on food contact surfaces.” FDA also noted that its samples matched “the DNA fingerprint of the clinical cases of listeriosis reported by the Texas Department of State Health Services [DSHS],” which last month closed the plant and ordered a recall of all products shipped since January 2010. “It comes as no surprise to us,” one DSHS spokesperson was quoted as saying. “If there was any doubt out there, this erases it. It’s another layer of confirmation that this plant had serious issues.” Additional details about the outbreak and recall appear in Issue 369…
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has ordered a San Antonio produce plant to stop processing food and recall all products shipped since January 2010 because “laboratory tests of chopped celery from the plant indicated the presence of Listeria monocytogenes.” DSHS has prohibited Sangar Fresh Cut Produce from reopening without approval from the department, which issues such orders when conditions pose “an immediate and serious threat to human life or health,” according to an October 20, 2010, DSHS press release. After an eight-month investigation into a Listeriosis outbreak that included five deaths, DSHS allegedly linked Sangar’s chopped celery to six illnesses in people “with serious underlying health problems.” State inspectors also reportedly “found sanitation issues at the plant and believe the Listeria found in the chopped celery may have contaminated other food product there.” The recall primarily affects fresh produce sealed in packages and distributed “to restaurants and…
The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has announced the pending eradication of a fatal cattle virus known as rinderpest, hailing the achievement as “the first time in history that humankind has succeeded in wiping out an animal disease in the wild, and only the second time, after smallpox in 1980, that a disease has been eliminated thanks to human efforts.” According to FAO, the global disease “does not affect humans directly, but its ability to cause swift, massive losses of cattle and other hoofed animals has led to devastating effects on agriculture for millennia, leaving famine and economic devastation in its wake.” Reporting that the last known rinderpest outbreak occurred in 2001 in Kenya, FAO attributed its success to the Global Rinderpest Eradication Program (GREP) launched in 1994. GREP led partnerships with international and domestic agencies that aimed to characterize the disease, promote vaccination and coordinate eradication campaigns. With the…
A company that makes name- and store-brand food products, including cereals, granola products, pastas, and bakery goods, has sued the supplier of soybean food ingredients allegedly contaminated with Salmonella, seeking in excess of $7 million in damages. Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. v. Thumb Oilseed Producers’ Coop., No. 10-1898 (E.D. Mo., filed October 8, 2010). According to the complaint, the companies contracted for the purchase of the defendant’s soy grits under an agreement that guaranteed they would be suitable for human consumption and that the defendant would indemnify and pay damages to the plaintiff for any warranty breaches. Plaintiff Ralcorp Holdings alleges that it incorporated most of the soy grits into its products, specifically granola bars and trail mixes, for sale to a number of retail companies with which Ralcorp had also contracted. Before delivering the final products, Ralcorp claims that it discovered the soy grit ingredient “was, and had been at…
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a report titled “Advancing Regulatory Science for Public Health,” that outlines the agency’s plan to develop new scientific and technological tools, standards and approaches to improve its ability to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of FDA-regulated products, including foods and tobacco. FDA expects to use President Barack Obama’s $25 million increased budget request for fiscal year 2011 to expand the initiative and “build additional partnerships with academia, industry and government around the country.” According to a news source, FDA’s budget has been frozen under a continuing resolution Congress passed before taking its latest recess. A new office dedicated to regulatory science will be created, and the initiative’s goals include protecting the food supply by focusing on “the development of more rapid and practical methods for detecting microbial pathogens in food and equipping FDA’s labs to test multiple food samples for…
