–UPDATE —January 9, 2019 – Today FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. gave an update about food inspections in the context of the government shutdown. He chose Twitter to deliver his statement. He said FDA is expanding the scope of food safety surveillance inspections that are occurring during the shutdown to ensure that high-risk food facilities are address (31% of domestic inspections are high risk). He added that the agency continues to conduct all foreign food inspections.
“We assess risk based on an overall, cross-cutting risk profile. The primary factors contributing to a facility’s risk profile include: the type of food, the manufacturing process, and the compliance history of the facility. Commodities deemed high risk include, but aren’t limited to: modified atmosphere packaged products; acidified and low acid canned foods; seafood; custard filled bakery products; dairy products including soft, semi-soft, soft ripened cheese and cheese products, unpasteurized juices; sprouts ready-to-eat; fresh fruits and vegetables and processed fruits and vegetables; spices; shell eggs; sandwiches; prepared salads; infant formula; and medical foods.” – Scott Gottlieb, M.D., FDA
–END UPDATE–
As the third-longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, businesses across industries are concerned about what resources are available.
At FDA, “All our work is important, but only some of our work is permitted to continue during a lapse in funding,” according to an agency statement. This work includes any activities that are considered “mission critical”:
Maintaining core functions that handle and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks
High-risk food recalls
Screening foods imported into the United States
The pursuit of civil and/or criminal investigations when the agency believes that the public health is at risk
At USDA, FSIS will continue much of its food safety activities Field inspection of meat, poultry and egg products will continue, as well as regulatory enforcement and product testing in labs. The agency will also continue its enforcement and food safety surveillance and investigations, which includes recall initiation, traceback/traceforward investigations.
“The agency must ensure adequate senior level management and coordination of the agency’s public health responsibilities during a shutdown. Excepted activities include responding to intentional and unintentional food safety events. A small number of individuals will support these activities for the duration of the shutdown, while others will be available on call if such an event occurs, including recall staff, scientists; recall communication specialists, significant incident specialists.” – USDA
In addition USDA/FSIS personnel at the agency’s three field labs are considered “excepted” during the shutdown. A full breakdown of FSIS activities that will continue are available on the USDA’s website.
During an exclusive interview at the 2018 Food Safety Consortium, Douglas Marshall, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Eurofins, talks about the company’s acquisition of Cascade Analytical, its impact on the produce industry and the expanded services the deal will bring to customers. The lab has been providing services for growers and processors, mainly in fresh fruit and vegetable industries. It also provides soil and water testing, and food and waste material testing. This interview is the first of a two-part discussion with Marshall.
As stated by CDC’s John Besser, Ph.D. last month at the Food Safety Consortium, “It’s been quite a year for outbreaks.” Here’s a not-so-fond look back at some of the noteworthy outbreaks and recalls of 2018.
Romaine Lettuce –E.coli O157:H7
2018 was not a good year for romaine lettuce. In the spring, a deadly multistate outbreak of E.coli O157:H7 was linked to romaine lettuce that came from the Yuma, Arizona growing region. “We knew right away that this was going to get bad and that it would get bad quickly,” said Matthew Wise, deputy branch chief for outbreak response at the Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch of the CDC at the 2018 Food Safety Consortium. Although the CDC declared the outbreak over at the end of June, the total number of illnesses had reached 210, with five deaths.
Then in November it was revealed that contaminated lettuce was coming from growing regions in northern and central California. According to the latest update from FDA, there have been 59 reported illnesses, with 23 hospitalizations, across 16 states. No deaths have been reported. Earlier this month Adam Bros Farming, Inc. recalled red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce and cauliflower, because it may have come into contact with water from the reservoir where the E. coli outbreak strain was found.
Raw Beef Products – Salmonella
At the beginning of the month, JBS Tolleson, Inc. expanded a recall of its non-intact raw beef products due to concerns of contamination with Salmonella Newport. More than 12 million pounds of product have been recalled. The latest CDC update put the reported case count at 333, with 91 hospitalizations across 28 states.
Shell Eggs – Salmonella
In April, Rose Acre Farms recalled more than 206 million eggs after FDA testing determined that eggs produced from the company’s farm were connected to 22 cases of Salmonella Braenderup infections. A total of 45 cases were reported across 10 states, with 11 hospitalizations, according to the CDC.
Pre-cut Melon – Salmonella
In June Caito Foods recalled its pre-cut melon productsafter a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Adelaide infections were traced back to the products. A total of 77 cases across nine states, with 36 hospitalizations, were reported.
Vegetable Trays – Cyclospora
In July, Del Monte recalled its vegetable trays that contained broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and dill dip following confirmed cases of cyclosporiasis in people who consumed the products. The CDC declared the outbreak over in September, with a final case count at 250 people across four states.
Salad Mix – Cyclospora
Fresh Express salad mix served at McDonalds was linked to a multistate outbreak of cyclosporiasus. The outbreak was declared over in September, with the final illness count at 511, and 24 hospitalizations.
Raw Turkey – Salmonella
Just before Thanksgiving an outbreak of Salmonella linked to raw turkey products was announced. Jennie-O Turkey Store Sales recalled more than 255,000 pounds of raw ground turkey products, however the CDC has not identified a single, common supplier that can account for this outbreak. As of the agency’s latest update on December 21, 216 cases have been reported across 38 states. The outbreak is responsible for 84 hospitalizations and one death.
Honey Smacks Cereal – Salmonella
The early summer outbreak of Salmonella Mbandaka linked to Kellogg’s Honey Smacks cereal got a lot of press, and it didn’t help that even though the company recalled the product, many retailers continued to keep the cereal on their shelves. The last illness onset was reported at the end of August. A total of 135 people were reported ill, with 34 hospitalizations.
The end of the year is always a time of reflection. At Food Safety Tech, it is also a time when we like to share with you, our readers, the most popular articles over the last 12 months. Enjoy, and thank you to our loyal and new readers, as well as our contributors!
The supply chain is a potentially weak and vulnerable part of a company’s food safety plan. The annual Food Safety Supply Chain Conference is months away and we are accepting abstracts for presentations. The conference takes place May 29–30, 2019 in Rockville, MD.
If you have expertise in the following areas, we invite you to submit an abstract to present at the conference:
How to build a smarter, safer and more sustainable food supply chain: This was a big topic at the 2018 Food Safety Consortium last month. David McCarthy of IBM Food Trust led a panel of experts from the retail side of the industry in a Q&A session about their biggest challenges in the supply chain, the role of digital and how to achieve a higher level of transparency.
What are the main areas in the supply chain where there’s a major need for improvement?
Sean Leighton, vice president of food safety and quality, Cargill: One of the biggest challenges that I see from a supplier perspective is people’s assumptions around what is the supply chain—our mindsets, our ability to talk with each other on “what do you mean by ‘supply chain’”?
Cindy Jiang and Scott Horsfall (all images credit: amybcreative)
What is food safety’s role in the supply chain?
Cindy Jiang, senior director of worldwide food safety, quality and nutrition, McDonald’s Corp.: The supply chain is a supply network; it’s not linear. The most fundamental thing is to ensure there’s no disruption—that the supply chain can provide goods and food product to your customers. When you’re looking at the supply chain, [there’s a] change between the traditional thinking and the digital demand. How do you provide information in an effective way to your customers?
Howard Popoola, vice president, corporate food technology and regulatory compliance, The Kroger Company: Our supply chain means nothing if we aren’t able to deliver safe foods to those consumers in the last mile. Consumers are thinking about the experience that they’re going to have with this product. They’re not thinking about whether it’s safe or not. They’re thinking about the meal they’re going to make at home with the ingredients that they purchased.
The biggest pain point from the retailer’s perspective, when you look at us as being the last in the chain, is in transparency [and] knowing where the products are coming from. Transparency is very big for us. And it takes more than the retailer to open that door of transparency to the consumer.
What are the challenges you’re seeing in providing transparency?
Scott Horsfall, CEO, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement: I think a big challenge right now and in the future is communication.
Leighton: I think the winners….are going to be the ones that try to achieve consumer trust. The future is no place for the three ring binders…it’s digital. Where does the data sit? How can you provide access to them through customers?
Howard Popoola and Sean Leighton
How does the digital transformation play into providing transparency?
Popoola: The consumers have already trusted the food industry. There are millions of people walking into retail stores buying product. If the trust isn’t there, they wouldn’t be doing that. We erode that trust when [a consumer] has a terrible experience with that product.
How are you seeing digital transformation across the supply chain?
Jiang: Digital is one of the top three initiatives of McDonalds; how do we connect with consumers? When serving 70 million customers each day, how can we get to the transparency to understand the supply—digital is one of the answers. From the supply chain standpoint, we’re looking at the analytics. We cannot think about only one solution. We have to have different solutions to get the end results.
Popoola: I think the food industry has to see itself as a big ecosystem. If we don’t see ourselves as an ecosystem that strives for the one thing,… digital is always going to be a mirage. We have to look at what is digital and understand the fact that [we have large and small companies]. It’s not going to be one size fits all.
How long will it take the food industry to get to a completely digital operation?
Jiang: Looking at the total industry digitized—the majority of the work can be done within the next five years, [by] looking at leading companies. But in terms of total digitalization of the ood network in the U.S., I think that will take another 10 to 20 years.
(left to right) Howard Poopola, Sean Leighton, Cindy Jiang, Scott Horsfall and David McCarthy discuss supply chain challenges during the 2018 Food Safety Consortium
Horsfall: I think there’s a challenge with much of the farm community to get to this point. There’s also this issue with how you transmit the information. [Horsfall predicts] 10-15 years for the industry.
Leighton: Even a 100% digitized food industry has limited value if the players in the industry can’t pull together to deliver meaningful insights from it all.
What are the most promising innovations solving transparency?
Jiang: When looking at innovation, not just technology (technology is an enabler)— the most impactful innovation is human innovation: How can we work together? The GFSI platform started 20 years ago, and now it’s so impactful around the globe. [Now we’re] looking at how to harmonize food safety standards.
How can we standardize and harmonize… for ingredient suppliers?
How [can we] use the GS1 platform, numbering system to track on where the ingredient is coming from and how that product is made for us—what’s in my product?
Think about the human collaboration and how to improve where we’re at.
Poopola: I would like to tackle this from a different perspective: When we built technologies (whether off-the-shelf or customized) 20 years ago, we thought [it would be around for] the next 100 years. It’s clear today that the technology you have in place might be obsolete in five years. We have to look at the technology we’re building and acquiring today: Will it be relevant in five years?
Leighton: It’s hard to wrap my head around…deep learning and AI [artificial intelligence]. The insights we can gain from machine learning and predictive analytics. Could AI be human’s last invention?
Horsfall: In produce industry, which hasn’t always been in the front, I think that’s changing. [We’re] trying to bring AI and new technology to bear.
Today AOAC International announced its appointment of Palmer Orlandi, Jr., Ph.D. to deputy executive director and chief science officer of the organization. Orlandi is Rear Admiral and U.S. Assistant Surgeon General, and formerly the senior science officer and research director at FDA’s Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine. He is also and on Food Safety Tech’s Editorial Advisory Board.
“We are eager to work with Dr. Orlandi to help drive the development and execution of our science strategy to capitalize on the opportunities in front of us,” said AOAC Executive Director David B. Schmidt in a press release. “He will strengthen our ability to solve public health dilemmas and make an impact in the analytical communities. With Palmer’s impressive background and extensive knowledge in global food safety, we are confident that he will help lead and advance AOAC’s mission further as we enter our next chapter.”
Orlandi’s appointment is effective next Monday, December 17. His responsibilities will include overseeing the AOAC Research Institute, standards development and proficiency testing. He will also engage in business development and strategic partnerships to advance voluntary consensus standards and international relations.
Palmer Orlandi discusses FSMA and laying the groundwork for data acceptance in lab partnerships at the Food Safety Consortium. WATCH NOW
Orlandi has 20 years of experience at FDA, with his work beginning at a research lab at CFSAN. There he developed rapid and molecular detection methods for Cyclospora and Cryptosporidia and the Microsporidia (emerging food-and waterborne protozoan parasites). In 2008 he became the science coordinator in the Division of Field Science in FDA’s ORA where he oversaw collaborative analytical methods programs for ORA and the Food Emergency Response Network. In 2012 he took on the role of senior science advisor to the chief scientist officer at the Office of Food and Veterinary Medicine. He played an active role in integrating science and research efforts across the agency’s foods program, and working to align research and lab programs to regulatory field lab needs. He earned the rank of Rear Admiral and Assistant Surgeon General in 2017.
Yesterday FDA issued an update on the E.coli O157:H7 outbreak linked to romaine lettuce grown in California. The agency’s traceback investigation continues, and it is working with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), as there is a similar outbreak in Canada.
FDA stated that the contaminated lettuce likely originates from the Central Coast growing regions of northern and Central California (Counties of Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Ventura).
“Traceback information from four restaurants in three different states so far has implicated 10 different distributors, 12 different growers, and 11 different farms as potential sources of rthe contaminated lettuce. The information indicates that the outbreak cannot be explained by a single farm, grower, harvester, or distributor.”
This week 3M Food Safety announced that its Molecular Detection Assay 2 test for Campylobacterreceived the Performance Tested Methods (PTM) Certificate number 111803 from the AOAC Research Institute. This designation validates 3M’s assay enrichment broth as an improvement and/or equivalent alternative to USDA FSIS and ISO reference methods for detecting Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter lari, according to a 3M Food Safety press release. The assay uses Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) technology to overcome the complex instrumentation requirements of PCR tools.
“We are excited to receive this certification from the AOAC Research Institute,” said Cynthia Zook, 3M Food Safety commercialization manager. “LAMP technology continues to perform exceptionally well compared to conventional tests. We’re proud to be a part of a sea-change in the industry as we continue to innovate and create technologies like this one that are as simple, accurate, fast and reliable as possible.”
During the certification process, an independent lab tested the assay on several matrices, including whole raw chicken carcass rinses, raw poultry parts rinses, raw ground poultry rinses, raw turkey carcass sponges and breaded chicken nuggets.
Following an expanded recall issued this week, JBS Tolleson, Inc. has now recalled about 12,093,271 pounds of non-intact raw beef products over concerns that they may be contaminated with Salmonella Newport. The initial recall of nearly 7 million raw beef products occurred just two months ago. The Class I recall announced today involves an additional 5,156,076 pounds of raw beef products that were produced and packed between July 26 and September 7, 2018, according to USDA’s FSIS . The recalled products have the establishment number “EST. 267” inside the USDA mark of inspection.
According to the CDC, there are currently 246 reported Salmonella Newport illnesses across 25 states, with 59 hospitalizations. No deaths have been reported. FSIS and CDC have been working with case patients who have provided receipts or shopper card numbers to conduct traceback investigations. The agencies are urging consumers to check their freezers for any recalled product.
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