California LGMA overhauls food safety - FreshFruitPortal.com

'Outbreaks absolutely must stop': California LGMA in systematic overhaul of food safety

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'Outbreaks absolutely must stop': California LGMA in systematic overhaul of food safety

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) says it's boosting its efforts to improve safety following numerous E. coli outbreaks.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared on Wednesday that three E. coli outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce grown in Salinas, California are now over.

One of the outbreaks sickened 167 people in 27 states. The other outbreak, linked to Fresh Express salad kits, sickened 10 people in five states. There was also a third outbreak in Washington State that sickened 11 people.

LGMA response

The LGMA said in a release that since the consumer advisory was first issued on Nov. 21, California leafy greens farmers have taken action to prevent future outbreaks.

ā€œThe industry is enforcing upon themselves even more stringent food safety requirements than were previously in place through the Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement,ā€ said Scott Horsfall, CEO of the group that was established a food safety program established in 2007 to address food safety issues.

Steve Church of Church Brothers said: "We need to prevent this from happening again. These outbreaks are devastating to our industry as well as to consumers and they absolutely must stop."

At a recent meeting of the LGMA, leaders from throughout the California leafy greens community agreed it is industryā€™s responsibility to strengthen their mandatory food safety practices even further.

ā€œWe have to take control of our own destiny,ā€ said Dan Sutton, a leafy greens producer who serves as chairman of the LGMA.

ā€œThe LGMA exits to establish food safety standards for farming leafy greens. We need a focused industry-wide effort to figure out whatā€™s happening in the environment where we farm. The members of the LGMA are committed to making real changes to improve the safety of our product.ā€

California LGMA conducting systematic overall of food safety practices

The LGMA acknowledged all of the work being done by the FDA to help determine the exact cause of recent outbreaks. To date, investigators have been unable to determine the source of the outbreaks.

According to the FDA, ā€œOur investigation is ongoing, and we are doing everything possible to find the source or sources of contamination. The investigation into how this contamination occurred is important, so romaine growers can implement measures that will prevent future contamination and illnesses.ā€ 

ā€œThe leafy greens community is extremely motivated to get to the bottom of this and we want to be more involved,ā€ said Jan Berk of San Miguel Produce who serves as vice-chairman of the LGMA.

ā€œThe FDA investigators are not farmers. They donā€™t know whatā€™s going on in our fields the way we do. We are the ones who need to fix this.ā€

Work is already underway to do just that.

ā€œThe LGMA is currently conducting a systematic overhaul of the food safety practices included in our program,ā€ explained Horsfall.

ā€œWeā€™re working with our industry partner Western Growers to conduct an open, transparent review of the required food safety practices under the LGMA. We will be bringing in outside expertise so that we can incorporate new knowledge and research.ā€

Special meeting in February

Additionally, a special meeting hosted by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is being planned for Feb. 4 in Salinas.

Growers are being invited to participate in a discussion about research opportunities available through a broad study that will monitor environmental conditions in California that may be contributing to outbreaks. 
 
ā€œOur goal is to work in conjunction with leafy greens growers and with the U.S. FDA to resolve the problems that continue to impact romaine,ā€ said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross.

ā€œThe LGMA and the entire leafy greens industry has been extremely cooperative in these efforts. We all want to see an end to these outbreaks so that consumers can have confidence in eating leafy greens. We owe this to our consumers and to our growers.ā€  

Horsfall emphasized that actions being taken by the LGMA demonstrate the industryā€™s commitment to making changes in their food safety practices.

ā€œThe benefit of the LGMA system is that when we make changes to our requirements, they are implemented on thousands of farms that produce over 90 percent of leafy greens grown in the U.S,ā€ he said.

ā€œGovernment auditors will then verify growers are following the new practices through mandatory government audits.  No other food safety program in the world has this capability.ā€

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