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Nov 27, 2006 9:43 pm US/Eastern
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E. Coli Still A Big Concern For U.S. Agriculture
by Denise Koch
(WJZ)
Panic hit American homes and supermarkets in September when spinach laced with E. coli made its way across the country.
Bags of spinach were tossed and refrigerators emptied as nearly 200 people were sickened, some fatally by the tainted spinach.
As part of a special
Eyewitness News investigation,
WJZ's Denise Koch talked to experts who say the E. coli threat is as real today as it was then.
Mike Taylor, the former director of the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection service, told
WJZ's Koch, "We have a system that's not working as well as we can and we will continue having these problems until we address prevention."
The raw spinach was tainted with a new, mutant strain of E. coli, called e-coli 015787. It is so potent as few as five to ten bacteria can sicken, even kill. Dr. Glenn Morris of the University of Maryland School of Public Health says, "Once this microorganism which carries the toxin sets up housekeeping, there is not much we can do medically. So the focus has to be on prevention."
This new strain of E. coli lives naturally in the guts of cattle and other farm animals. The problem begins when feces get on produce at the farm, the produce is sent to processors and it's then sent to food stores. Morris explains, "You may have a leaf of spinach with 100 bacteria and you wash 99 but if you leave one bacteria that may be enough to cause illness."
So experts say the solution has to lie in better farming practices and more government regulation. Taylor points out no one agency regulates the food industry and in particular produce. "We have a fragmented system with the FDA being responsible for part of the food supply and the USDA being responsible for meat and poultry."
Even the Food and Drug Administration was worried about vulnerabilities nearly a year before the deadly spinach outbreak.
Eyewitness News obtained a letter to growers written in November of 2005, in which the FDA "strongly encouraged firms...to review their current operations for minimizing microbial food safety hazards in fresh fruits and vegetables." It went on to say, "the FDA is investigating regulatory options."
There is legislation pending that would unify the food safety agencies, so there would be one official organization with the power but also the accountability. Until then, growers and consumers are on their own.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)