By Julie Murphree, Arizona Farm Bureau Outreach Director
While the recent E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce clearly underscores the importance of continued improvements in food safety, Arizona families and Americans across the country would be pleased to discover that our produce farmers in Arizona and California take this issue very seriously. They take action through a highly rigorous food safety program that attempts to prevent outbreaks all along the complicated food supply chain.
“We have to look at this particular pathogen, E. coli 0157: H7. It only takes enough of this strain to cover the tip of a straight pin to make 100 plus people ill,” says Yuma vegetable farmer and Arizona Farm Bureau First Vice President John Boelts in an interview with KJZZ. “It’s a very veracious toxin. It emits one of the most toxic substances known to humans. But you’re talking about something microscopic. Our interest is in finding the point source. We want to know how that pathogen did or didn’t enter into the food supply and make sure we prevent this in the future.”
The encouraging news is that the romaine lettuce that sickened people in 25 states as of this article posting is no longer on market shelves. Most lettuce, like romaine, averages a 21-day shelf life. The heartbreaking news: the CDC today has also just confirmed one death. CDC is also citing a case count of 121 with 52 hospitalizations as of the posting of this article.
“We’re very much interested in getting to the bottom of this so we can make sure we can prevent this in the future,” explains Boelts, who has been farming for the last 20 years in Yuma growing every type of leafy green you can imagine, plus melons, cotton, and wheat.
This is an excerpt of an article from May 2 by Murphree. Read the entire We're Serious about food safety article.