Salmonella Outbreak Exposes Food-Safety Flaws

Via WSJ.com -

After weeks of trying to get to the bottom of the outbreak, it occurred to investigators in late June that they had to look beyond fresh tomatoes. In at least two large clusters of illnesses, tomatoes weren't a factor, and cases kept piling up after the government had warned consumers to avoid eating fresh tomatoes.

Hurdles to the probe ranged from poor record-keeping for tracking fresh produce to some overwhelmed state health departments to the fact that jalapeños had never before been implicated in a salmonella outbreak.

"It's a mess -- that's part of the problem with the food-safety system we have today," said Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety. "When folks get together at the table, no one is officially in charge. Sometimes one person talks over another."

[...]

In early stages of the investigation, jalapeño peppers weren't in the picture. The peppers, never before linked to a salmonella outbreak, weren't on the questionnaire health officials used to interview early patients. Officials in New Mexico and at the CDC decided raw tomatoes were the source of the outbreak because 86% of patients ate them before becoming ill. History also played a part: Tomatoes had caused at least a dozen prior salmonella outbreaks.

But the Food and Drug Administration's hunt for contaminated tomatoes was hampered by poor record-keeping and the common practice of mixing and processing tomatoes from many different farms together. Also, many tomato fields were no longer in production, and all 1,700 samples tested negative for salmonella.

What the federal government and the food industry learn from the investigation could help improve the system. Already, a system to enhance the FDA's ability to trace the source of contaminated food has gained support among some prominent lawmakers and the FDA.

Agricultural producers have been leery of such systems because they could bring liability to their doorstep, but Kathy Means, a vice president at the Produce Marketing Association, said that is changing since recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses have been so costly for farmers and food companies.

The trade group last year began crafting a plan to set up a global, electronic tracking system. "We need to be able to trace produce in minutes or hours, not days or weeks," Ms. Means said.

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Imagine that, a world were companies are liable for their products and any possible public health issues created by said products...wow.