Monty Python and the Food Recalls
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One of Monty Python's most imitated sketches was "The Four Yorkshiremen." Even if you've never seen it, it will be instantly recognizable to you. It's the one where four men sit around talking about how tough they had it as kids, compared to how kids have it today. One starts by complaining about how small his house was, and another exclaims, "You had a house?" Eventually, the last one claims to have been roused from bed half an hour before he went to bed, worked 27 hours a day and paid for the privilege and then was murdered every night when he got home.
I was thinking about this sketch as I was contemplating how different from the last food recall about which I blogged, involving tuna in New England, was from the painfully slow recalls involving the salmonella finding that has led Plainview Milk Products Cooperative to recall the last two years of its products. As you might recall, the last recall involved fresh tuna steaks sold to three New England supermarket chains over four days before the problems were identified. By this time, most of the food subject to the recall had probably been consumed and the recall required only publicity in a limited area for those who might have frozen the steaks rather than eaten them fresh. Without denying the difficulties that North Coast Sea-Foods might have encountered in that recall, or the suffering of anyone who got scombroid poisoning, as a recall goes, they, in the words of Monty Python, had it easy.
The Plainview Milk Products Cooperative and everyone who bought from them, on the other hand, have it anything but easy, and the fact that almost every day new products are added to the recalled list demonstrates this.
It all started with a package of powdered milk shake mix. A USDA test showed there was salmonella in the powder. Plainview was the supplier of a main ingredient in the powder. Although tests of its products have uncovered no salmonella, there was salmonella found on some equipment in Plainview's plant. This triggered the recall. No persons have been found who have been made ill by any of Plainview's products.
Plainview does not sell products to consumers. However, as the recall has unfolded, the number and scope of products that are sold to consumers that incorporate Plainview's products has been shown to be huge. Included are:
- Instant non-fat dry milk
- Instant oatmeal
- Instant gravy
- Popcorn
- Instant cocoa
- Sports drinks
- Instant milk shakes
Products with familiar names like Malt-O-Meal and Land O'Lakes are covered, as are numerous private label products from companies like Meijer, Kroger, Stop and Shop and Piggly Wiggly.
Because the products are the kind that are shelf-stable, and the recall covers two full years, even after all the recalled foods have been identified, getting consumers to search pantries for them will be difficult. Indeed, a lot of these products were incorporated into emergency kits, the kinds of things you don't open until needed.
Another place where the powder can be found is in Meals-Ready-to-Eat, the famed MREs of the miltary. In other words, U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are having to toss out their vanilla, chocolate, strawberry and stawberry-banana milkshakes, according to Stars and Stripes. MREs are also used by FEMA and by campers.
As Ken noted recently, the two highest priorities on the Obama Administration's list for the FDA are Salmonella and a national traceback and response system. What the Plainview situation indicates is that, to be effective, the tracing system may need to go in both directions. It didn't take the FDA long to find that Plainview's products were incorporated into the milk shake mix, but it is taking a very long time to find all the products into which the same set of ingredients--including nonfat dry milk, fruit stabilizers, whey protein, and gum products--have also been incorporated.
The implications of such a system, however, are huge. Here are just a few:
- There is an identity between food safety information and confidential commercial information in terms of the relations between suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and retailers. How will this be kept confidential? Who will be trusted to keep it confidential?
- Who pays for the system, and who controls its expenses?
- What is the end point on the origination side? Does every farmer have to keep track of all the inputs into its produce?
- Manufacturers may use many sources of fungible goods; will they be required to trace these? Who pays the capital cost of changing from one big hopper to four small ones?
Finally, I would be remiss without mentioning the point made by Kimberly Lord Stewart, editorial director of Functional Ingredients Newsletter. As Ms. Stewart points out, there is no proof that the salmonella found in the milkshake powder came from the Plainview ingredients, and there are nine other ingredients in the powder made by others.
As Ms. Stewart says,
The Plainview situation has hints of the salsa recall, which initially implicated tomato growers, then salsa makers, only to find out the source of contamination was jalapeños. Traceability is a complicated and looming issue for processed foods. Looking for a needle in a haystack is easy compared to tracking down 9 lesser ingredients in DairyShake blends or multiple ingredients in salsa.
Or, as the late Graham Chapman would say, "Luxury."
Court Rules That Retailers Have No Duty to Investigate Suppliers Compliance with Organic Regulations
An important ruling was issued last week dismissing claims that milk produced by an organically certified dairy and labeled as organic was not really organic. Plaintiffs in the action asserted violations of various states’ laws because they claimed that they paid more for the milk because it was labeled as "organic.”
A federal judge in the Eastern District of Missouri granted a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss on a multitude of cases pending against the dairy, various retailers selling the dairy products and others (originally these suits were filed in various federal courts around the country but were consolidated for pretrial purposes by the United States Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation or MDL).
The judge ruled that claims against the dairy were preempted because a “conflict exists between federal and state law” (otherwise known as “conflict preemption”). As explained in the opinion, conflict preemption exists where “a party’s compliance with both federal and state law would be impossible or where state law would pose an obstacle to the accomplishment of congressional objectives.” Here, the court found that for “plaintiff’s claims to succeed, the Court would have to invalidate the regulatory scheme established under the OFPA [Organic Foods Production Act] and NOP [National Organic Program].” The court concluded that if plaintiffs were to prevail “producers would be liable even where fully certified and authorized to use these terms and seals.”
For the retailer defendants, the judge ruled that because plaintiffs’ claims against the dairy are preempted, “the retailer Defendants cannot be liable.” But the court went further and dealt explicitly with the plaintiffs’ claims that the retailers “should have investigated” the dairy’s activities to ensure compliance with the OFPA and NOP. The court rejected these arguments:
The Retailer Defendants did not have any duty to inspect [the dairy’s] facilities, or the facilities of any of their other organic producers. Imposing such a requirement “would place an undue burden on the distributor who is least likely to have access to such information.”
This should be good news for organic retailers. Hopefully, this decision will reduce their legal exposure to consumer labeling claims going forward.
Ivar's Turkey Soup Recall
Ivar Haglund was a Seattle legend. In these parts, he was known only by his first name, the way you can refer to "Michael" when you're discussing basketball and people know you mean Michael Jordan. His food is at Sea-Tac Airport, Safeco Field and Qwest Field. From 1964 until it was discontinued for this year, he sponsored one of the largest fireworks displays in Seattle on the Fourth of July, which was called Fourth of Jul-Ivar's. Every city, I imagine, has someone like Ivar, but he was ours.
Ivar's is known for seafood. The original restaurant was called Acres of Clams, right on the waterfront. His landmark Salmon House is on Lake Union next to Dale Chihuly's house and studio; you can sometimes see Chihuly with his trademark patch walking past Ivar's.
I had no idea Ivar's made turkey soup until it was recalled.
You couldn't buy Ivar's turkey soup, more particularly "turkey-flavored egg noodle soup with turkey meat", even before it was recalled. It is only sold to institutions. I imagine it is a way of increasing revenue from by-products that might otherwise have to be thrown out or recycled.
So what was wrong with the soup?
Absolutely nothing. Bring it by and I'll happily consume it (though not expecting it to be a high-end product, given the market).
Why then the recall? Because the packaging didn't indicate that it contained milk and milk is a known allergen.
Ordinarily, I might note also that vegans don't ingest milk products either, so the mislabeling might cause an issue with them. And of course Jewish dietary laws prohibit the mixing of milk with poultry. So in both cases, there might have been mislabeling issues unrelated to milk's status as an allergen. However, vegans don't eat turkey anyway, and observant Jews only eat turkey that has been properly ritually slaughtered, as would be evidenced by a rabbi's stamp on the package, which I somehow doubt Ivar's had. Incidentally, the rabbinical kosher stamp here in Seattle incorporates a Space Needle into the K.
Is It Really A Food-Borne Illness?
At a recent presentation, Dr. Alan Melnick, a public health officer in both Oregon and Washington, provided a useful list of alternative causes of symptoms to consider when someone claims a food-borne illness. Other causes of symptoms that might be confused for food-borne illness include (but may not be limited to):
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Malignancies
- Antibiotic use
- Gastro-intestinal surgery or radiation
- Malabsorption syndromes
- Immune deficiency
Another practical piece of advice offered by Dr. Melnick: When assessing a food-borne illness claim, determine whether the incubation period is compatible with the illness. Incubation periods (along with other useful information) were provided by Dr. Melnick (relying upon the CDC) as follows:
|
Pathogen |
Incubation |
Symptoms |
Duration |
Source |
| Bacillus cereus |
1-6 hours (vomiting); 6-24 hours (diarrhea) |
Nausea and vomiting or colic and diarrhea | 24 hours (short form); 24-48 hours (long form) | Soil organism found in raw, dry and processed foods, e.d. rice |
| Campylobacter | 2-10 days; usually 2-5 days | Diarrhea, cramps, fever and vomiting; diarrhea may be bloody | 2-10 days | Raw and undercooked poultry, unpasteurized milk, water |
| Clostridium botulinum (botulism) | 2 hours to 8 days; usually 12-48 hours | Vomiting, diarrhea, blurred vision, double vision, difficulty swallowing, descending muscle weakness | Variable (days to months) | Home-canned food, improperly canned commercial foods |
| Clostridium perfringens | 6-24 hours | Cramps, diarrhea | 24-48 hours | Meats, poultry, gravy; foods kept warm |
| Enterro-hemorrhagic E. coli, including E. coli O157:H7 and other Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) | 1-10 days; usually 3-4 days | Diarrhea, frequently bloody; abdominal cramps (often severe); little or no fever; 5-10% develop Hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) and average of 7 days after onset, when diarrhea is improving (more common in children, elderly and immune-compromised) | 5-10 days | Ground beef, unpasteurized milk and juice, raw fruits and vegetables, contaminated water, sprouts, person to person |
| Listeria | 9-48 hours for GI symptoms; 2-6 weeks for invasive disease | Fever, muscle aches and nausea or diarrhea; pregnant women may have flu-like illness and stillbirth; elderly, immune-compromised and infants infected from mother can get sepsis and meningitis | Variable | Fresh soft cheeses, unpasteurized or inadequately pasteurized milk, ready-to eat deli meats and hot dogs |
| Salmonella | 6 hours to 10 days; usually 5-48 hours | Nausea, diarrhea, cramps, fever | 4-7 days | Poultry, eggs, meat, unpasteurized milk or juice, raw fruits and vegetables (e.g., sprouts), person to person |
| Shigella | 12 hours to 6 days; usually 2-4 days | Abdominal cramps, fever and diarrhea; stool may contain blood and mucus | 4-7 days | Contaminated food or water, raw foods touched by food workers, raw vegetables, egg salads, person to person |
| Staph (toxin) | 30 minutes to 8 hours; usually 2-4 hours | Nausea, cramps, vomiting, diarrhea | 24-48 hours | Custards, cream fillings, potato or egg salad, sliced meats |
| Vibrio cholerae | 1-5 days | Profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting, severe dehydration | 3-7 days | Contaminated water and shellfish, street vended food |
| Vibrio parahaemolyticus | 4-30 hours | Watery diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting | 2-5 days | Undercooked or raw seafood (fish and shellfish) |
| Vibrio vulnificus | 1-7 days | Vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain; more severe in patients with liver disease or who are immune-compromised; can cause invasive infection (sepsis) | 2-8 days | Raw seafood, particularly oysters, harvested from warm coastal waters |
| Yersinia | 1-10 days; usually 4-6 days | Appendicitis-like symptoms (diarrhea and vomiting, abdominal pain) | 1-3 weeks | Undercooked pork, unpasteurized milk, contaminated water |
More on The Raw Milk Debate - Consumer Choice vs. Consumer Protection
I found comments attributed in the article to Kansas State professor Doug Powell most salient:
Doug Powell says he's not surprised that government health officials denounce the dangers of raw milk then turn around and license the sale of the same milk.
"In part, it's because of the almost evangelical way people talk about raw milk and that America is founded on consumer choice," said the associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
"The numbers of illnesses from outbreaks caused by unpasteurized milk are not that high. You could very easily make the cases that 'Wow, maybe tomatoes should be regulated a whole lot more than we do now because the numbers of cases of salmonella saintpaul are up to 550 now,' " said Powell, who is also scientific director for the International Food Safety Network.While I'm not sure I agree that "America is founded on consumer choice," professor Powell is surely right that the conflict between consumer choice and consumer protection is bringing raw milk to boil. Professor Powell is also correct that from a public health standpoint, fresh produce presents a greater and more certain danger.
Implicit in the Post-Intelligencer article is that the debate suffers from a lack of consumer information. For example, do we really understand the alleged benefits of raw milk? There is some information on the web but is this peer-reviewed information that consumers can trust? On the flip side, consumers should be given better information than the kind of "scared straight" quality of information currently available. Both those who advocate against raw milk and those who support it can surely agree that both would be served by better research and consumer information.
