Fred Pritzker to Speak at Health Association Conference
Fred Pritzker
Fred Pritzker, a national E. coli lawyer, will be speaking at the Illinois Environmental Health Association Central Chapter Annual Education Conference May 14. His speach is entitled, “Representing Foodborne Illness Survivors: How lawyers evaluate and prove foodborne illness claims.” The association, had this to say, in anticipation of Fred’s presentation:
“We are extremely excited to have Fred Pritzker, president and founder of the national food safety law firm, Pritzker Olsen, P.A., in Minneapolis, Minnesota come speak to us about how lawyers evaluate and prove foodborne illness claims. Mr. Pritzker and members of his firm are frequent commentators on food safety issues and have been interviewed and profiled in a number of media outlets including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN.”
Ground beef E. coli Traceback Investigations To Get Tougher Under USDA Initiative
TheUSDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is poised to implement new, more aggressive traceback procedures when meat samples at grinding plants test positive for E. coli O157:H7.
Currently FSIS acknowledges that its traceback investigations are less robust when there is no outbreak of illness associated with a positive test result at a further processing plant.
FSIS said its plan is to speed up and expand efforts to find the original source of contamination and any other contaminated products when E coli O157:H7 is found in routine ground beef testing.
Under the new protocol, traceback investigations will begin immediately when FSIS gets a preliminary or “presumptive” finding of E. coli in routine testing of ground beef. That will provide investigators a two-day jump. The current approach is to wait 48 hours for the presumptive test to be confirmed.
“We intend to identify all affected product and the potential suppliers earlier in the process and to respond more rapidly to protect the public health,” FSIS official Judy Riggins said at the meeting.
Riggins said that if the sample of contaminated ground beef included materials from several suppliers, inspectors will go to all suppliers.
Dr. Daniel Engeljohn of FSIS said at the meeting last month that the issue is the degree to which the agency traces the source ofE. coli when samples test positive.
“It is a difference in how we do it with an investigation related to illness,” Engeljohn said. ” What we announced today is a substantive change to more thoroughly investigate traceback to the slaughter supplier more so than what we do today.”
The change, however, will not stop Montana Senator John Tester from proceeding with a bill that would require the FSIS to trace E. coli contamination to the original source — not just the butcher shop or processing facility that sold trimmings to a grinding plant. He has maintained that investigations stop before they get to the original slaughter facility where E. coli most likely was introduced.
E. coli O157:H7 is a dangerous human pathogen that grows harmlessly in the guts of cattle. The organisms exit in manure that can lodge on an animal’s hide. At slaughter, it can flake off the hide and contaminate meat. It’s also possible for E. coli to splatter onto cuts of meat if intestines are cut.
Cooking meat to 160 degrees kills E. coli, but temperatures don’t always reach that high inside a ground beef hamburger or meatball, especially when hamburgers are cooked on a grill. Color is not an indicator of doneness.
Once consumed, E. coli O157:H7 microbes emit a powerful toxin that causes extremely painful stomach cramps, nausea, fever and diarrhea, often bloody. In five to 15 percent of cases, patients develop life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) orthrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). In a given year, about 60 Americans will die fromE. coli and more than 70,000 are hospitalized.
E. coli from 750 Cows Pollutes River
A lagoon holding manure from 750 dairy cows broke and dumped millions of gallons of waste laden with E. coli O157:H7 into the Snowhomish River near Snohomish, Washington.
Quoting the Washington State Department of Agriculture, KING5-TV attributed the spill to a breached lagoon wall on the Bartelheimer Brothers dairy operation.
The state Department of Health is closely monitoring the problem, but there appeared to be no immediate threat to public drinking water systems, the station reported. People in the area with private wells are advised to consult with the health department about potential risks.
The lagoon is only 12 years old. It was built to hold 21 million gallons of manure and 10 feet of the 15-foot-deep facility was above ground level. All contents above ground level spilled out, according to the report.
Officials are monitoring the river and an accompanying slough to track harm to fish populations and people are being urged to stay away from the river to avoid E. coli poisoning.
Spinach E. coli Outbreak Inspires ‘Traceability Boot Camp’
The 2006 baby spinach E. coli outbreak that killed three and sickened hundreds of others in the United States is part of the inspiration for a series of one-day Fresh Produce Traceability Boot Camps in California this month.
The third of seven programs sponsored by the Western Growers produce association and the Traceability Institute was held yesterday at the Courtyard Airport Hotel in Fresno.
According to a promotional brochure, the “boot camps” are aimed at fresh fruit and vegetable produce growers, packers, shippers, distributors, CFOs, CEOs, managers, supervisors and food safety staff. The intent is to apply technology — mostly bar-coding for now — in order for any box of produce coming from the Central Valley to be quickly identified by the location of harvest and for records to show how it was handled and where it went.
The concept is to develop a reliable system of tracing the origin of produce from an end-user’s fork to the patch of ground where it was grown. Speedy tracebacks will help smother outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella and other pathogens by quickly identifying which food is making people sick and immediately recalling the lots suspected of contamination.
Hank Giclas, Vice-President of Strategic Planning for Western Growers, told KFSN-TV in Fresno that technology and acceptance is advancing to the point where bar-coding could extend to each individual head of lettuce, rather than by the case.
The station reported that growers see improved traceability as an effective marketing tool because of growing concern over food safety.
Said Giclas: “”It allows for swift identification of where your product is in the marketplace or supply chain and if needed, capture those products and remove from the marketplace.”
Iowa E coli Restaurant Issue Defies Common Sense
In a public debate in Iowa that defies common sense, some legislators are considering exempting an old-fashioned restaurant in Marshalltown from safe food handling requirements.
Taylor’s Maid Rite makes sandwiches with loose ground beef, sloppy joe style. Against state health code, the Marshalltown restaurant places raw ground beef in the same vessel holding cooked meat that is scooped onto sandwiches.
Even though the CEO of Maid-Rite Corp. says the old-time method is unsafe, the owner of the Marshalltown Maid-Rite is asking to be exempt from having to convert to a method that would prevent E. coli cross-contamination.
One of the restaurant’s advocates is Representative Mark Smith, a Democrat from Marshalltown, who says he eats at the restaurant frequently. The chain has a long history dating to the 1920s and has not been connected in the past with any ground beef E. coli outbreak.
But quaint notions about preserving old-fashioned kitchen methods are foolish when E. coli contamination is even a remote possibility. E. coli O157:H7 is nothing to toy with. The pathogen kills an estimated 60 people a year in the United States and ground beef is the most common vehicle for transmission. Restaurants don’t control the slaughter process that leads to E. coli contamination in beef and even if every batch of meat is tested for the pathogen, tests are not foolproof.
Even when death is not the outcome, more than 5 percent of the approximately 70,000 people a year who fall victim to E. coli infection develop a complication known as HUS E. coli, or hemolytic uremic syndrome. The microbes of E. coli emit a powerful toxin that attack red blood cells and HUS commonly results in kidney failure and can cause paralysis, stroke, heart problems and other long-term health problems. Children are more likely to become victims of HUS E coli than adults.
E. coli infection also is associated with a similarly dangerous condition known as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura , or TTP, more common in adults.
Iowa legislators should listen to the scientific advice of state health officials who have testified against the measure that would allow this dangerous set-up at certain Maid-Rites to continue.
Raw Milk E coli Debate Churns in Wisconsin
Raw milk supporters arrived by busloads yesterday in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, for a legislative hearing on a bill that public health officials say could lead to E. coli O157:H7 outbreaks and deaths by liberalizing trade in unpasteurized milk and other dairy products.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel estimated the crowd at about 450 people.
Still known as America’s Dairyland, Wisconsin this year is the center of the national raw milk debate that pits science and life-threatening illness against hard-core resistance to regulation that is based on libertarianism and disproven beliefs that raw milk has more nutritional value and other health benefits.
The Wisconsin raw milk bill, which is being discussed by the Legislature this year, would legalize the sale of raw milk, buttermilk, cream and butter within wide parameters. Farmers would be required to display a health warning sign and obtain a permit.
Many states have an outright ban against raw milk sales to protect citizens from potentially deadly microbiological contamination from cow feces.
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection officials oppose allowing sales of raw milk to the general public, saying it could lead to outbreaks of E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella with deadly consequences.
“Our job is to protect public health. We believe the law, the way it’s written now, does that as best as possible,” Steve Ingham, administrator of the agency’s food safety division, testified at Wednesday’s hearing.
Since 2000, four outbreaks of illness due to Campylobacter infection have been linked to unpasteurized milk or unpasteurized dairy products in Wisconsin. Those outbreaks sickened at least 131 people, according to the Wisconsin Division of Public Health.
Despite the good intentions of farmers, fecal poisoning of milk can’t be stopped reliably without pasteurization as a kill step.
The Wisconsin Public Health Association and Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards have urged legislators not to legalize raw milk sales. Also opposed to the bill is the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, which fears that E. coli outbreaks would give the greater dairy industry a black eye.
Many experts, including the federal Food and Drug Administration, say there are no health benefits from drinking raw milk that can’t be gained from drinking pasteurized milk.
And from a financial perspective, public health departments say they would incur enormous expense investigating all the E. coli and Campylobacter outbreaks that would occur if raw milk was legalized.
