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Pundit’s Mailbag — Clarification Of Sprout Outbreaks
Source
of Article: http://www.perishablepundit.com/#4
July
23, 2009 —
We’ve been writing a great deal
about sprouts. As an area of the industry plagued by food safety outbreaks,
we thought it important to understand and seek solutions to the problems
seemingly endemic to these products. In addition, as the sprout industry
has been wrestling with food safety issues longer than most of the fresh
produce trade, there may well be lessons the broader industry can learn
through careful study of how the sprout industry has wrestled with these
difficulties.
One lesson is the importance of industry
unity. The sprouting industry seems forever divided in twain… sometimes it
is the large producers vs. the small guys, sometimes it is those active in
the International Sprout Growers Association and those that are affiliated
with Brassica Protection Products. In either case, it is difficult for an
industry to wrestle with its problems when the industry is in such discord.
Most recently we ran a piece titled, Pundit’s
Mailbag — Marketer of BroccoSprouts Calls For Strict Adherence To FDA
Guidelines, which featured a letter from Earl Hauserman, VP
Busness Development, Brassica Protection Products. That piece has caused
some controversy in the industry and brought two letters, including one
from Earl Hauserman himself:
I
would like to make a correction to the letter I sent to you that you
published in the Perishable Pundit on June 23, 2009, in a piece entitled Pundit’s Mailbag —
Marketer of BroccoSprouts Calls For Strict Adherence To FDA Guidelines.
In that letter I stated that:
“With
regard to seed, it is completely untrue that all the outbreaks have come
from Caudill Seed Company and that none have come from Bob Rust’s ISS. By
my reckoning, of the 11 recalls/market withdrawals of alfalfa sprouts in
2008 and so far in 2009, seed from Caudill was implicated in only 5, seed
from others, primarily ISS, was implicated in 5, and 1 was
facility-related.”
I
am unaware of any outbreaks that ISS seed has been implicated in. I regret
this error due to my incomplete research.
—
Earl Hauserman
VP Business Development
Brassica Protection Products LLC
Baltimore, Maryland
We also received a letter from Bob Rust
of International Specialty Supply (ISS) dealing with the same article:
The
June 23, 2009, letter by Earl Hauserman of Brassica Protection Products is
interesting though terribly inaccurate. For example, it says:
“With
regard to seed, it is completely untrue that all the outbreaks have come
from Caudill Seed Company and that none have come from Bob Rust’s ISS.”
I
suspect he is responding to a May 20th Pundit letter in which a
correspondent wrote:
“Interestingly
enough, it seems that out of all seed suppliers, one major supplier was
responsible for most outbreaks that occurred in last 10 years.”
I contacted Mr.
Hauserman and have given him ample time to retract his letter or correct
his inaccuracies. He acknowledged this error in an email where he says: “I
am unaware of any outbreaks or recalls that ISS seed has been implicated
in. I regret this error due to my incomplete research.”
He
is correct, yet he has not done so publically. Therefore, I will respond
with hyperlinked references.
Mr.
Hauserman also wrote: “We have had problems, but far, far fewer than the
industry as a whole.”
Mr.
Hauserman should have known this considering that Brassica sprout growers
has been involved in all US sprout related outbreaks during the 2008-2009
period Mr. Hauserman referred to in his letter. Actually, Brassica sprout
growers has been involved in all sprout-related outbreaks in the last five
years. And all the seed used to produce those sprouts was, according to the
sprout growers involved, supplied by Caudill Seed Company.
The
outbreaks I am referring to are:
•
Salmonella saintpaul
•
Salmonella typhimurium
•
Salmonella bovismorbificans
According
to the FDA, there is also a PFGE pattern link of 20 hospitalized victims’
to a sprout-related Listeria monocytogenes
recall. Although the sprouts were grown by a Brassica Sprout grower, I am
not aware of seed being the suspect in any Listeria recall or outbreak to
date, including this one.
Other
sprout growers using Caudill seed may have played a minor role in one or
more of these outbreaks. I am unaware of any other outbreaks during this
time period attributed to sprouts. If there were some reported illnesses
from sprouts not either associated with Brassica growers or sprouts
produced from seed supplied by Caudill Seed Company, I would appreciate
hearing about it.
ISS
seed was implicated in a single sprout-related outbreak ten years ago, and
that is why we developed the ISS Seed Screening Program.
ISS seed has not been implicated in any outbreaks since.
Our
seed has produced sprouts involved in a sprout recall relating to confirmed
positives of Salmonella or E.coli 0157:H7. The grower was certain that our
seed was not the cause. The government did not implicate our seed nor did
they contact us regarding this recall. However, this was Salmonella, and we
assume that if it is Salmonella or E.coli 0157:H7, there is a good chance
that it did come from the seed. We brought the seed back from sprout
growers and tested it again. We could not find contamination. Regardless,
we took the seed off the sprouting seed market and there were no reported
illnesses.
Although
ISS has received accolades the world over for developing a seed safety
program that has removed several contaminated lots of seed from the market,
it is not likely ISS Screened Seed will always have a perfect record
regarding outbreaks. We sample, sprout, and test 25 grams from each and
every bag we screen. Besides testing the spent irrigation water for
Salmonella and E.coli O157:H7, we also send a separate lab some of the
sprouts to be homogenized and tested for Salmonella, E.coli O157:H7,
Shigella, Listeria monocytogenes, and generic E.coli.
If
generic E.coli is found, we test for Enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC). Still,
there may be times when the seed is so lightly contaminated that seed
sampling does not capture a pathogen in the seed. When this happens, we
hope the microbiological testing by the sprout growers will discover it and
our prompt communication with other sprout growers having the lot will
minimize the risk.
We
would never be ashamed of recalling seed anytime there is an elevated risk
that it may be contaminated. A recall should not be an implication of
guilt. Nor should a company consider the legal or financial ramifications
of a recall. A recall is a responsible act to reduce the risk of foodborne
illness.
When
discussing outbreaks, one should focus on the number and severity of illnesses,
not numbers of outbreaks. One outbreak involving 200 people is worse than
50 outbreaks of the same severity involving one or two people each.
Since
March 2001, there appear to have been 14 reported sprout-related
outbreaks in the US and Canada, involving over 1,100 reported
illnesses. The average outbreak involved about 79 people. Again, none of
those outbreaks or illnesses came from ISS seed.
These
reportedly involve multiple outbreaks with the same PFGE pattern and
multiple outbreaks of the same Phage type. They also include an outbreak in
which a sprout grower told the seed supplier that his spent irrigation
water had a confirmed positive, and the seed supplier never informed sprout
growers using the seed of the confirmed positive. But I will save all this
for later Pundits should this dialog continue.
As
a member of the newly formed committee of the ISGA and FDA to improve the
Sprout Guidance, I have suggested that sprout growers should have their
seed suppliers sign a “communication agreement,” which obligates the seed
supplier to inform them within 24 hours if there is ever a presumptive or
confirmed positive on the seed lot they are using.
All
of the information above is accurate to the best of my knowledge and
presented to defend my company and enhance the safety of sprouted seeds. If
anyone is aware of any additional information or information that is either
incorrect or misleading, please let me know so I can make appropriate
corrections.
— Bob Rust
International Specialty Supply (ISS)
Cookeville, Tennessee
It is clear that Mr.Hauserman made a
mistake in his research of the matter and he has now publicly acknowledged
that error.
At the same time, the significance of all
this is not 100% clear. Caudill is the largest seed producer and the
Brassica-affiliated producers are the largest producers of sprouts, so it
is not surprising that most of the outbreaks should touch upon both
organizations.
More broadly, with all the testing going
on at the sprouting companies, it is unclear to what extent the recorded
outbreaks reflects the contamination level of the seed.
Besides, the incidence of contamination
discovered in sprouts released to consumers is so tiny that we really can’t
derive any statistically valid information as to the safety of one firm’s
seed vs. another’s from the outbreak statistics.
The odds of getting double zero on a
roulette wheel in a Monte Carlo casino are one in 37 but that doesn’t mean
it won’t show up three times in a row. And the fact that it shows up three
times in a row doesn’t change the odds. And at roulette, we actually catch
every double zero that shows up.
So it is that the fact that one seed
company has three outbreaks in a row doesn’t tell us much, especially in light
of the fact that we have very incomplete knowledge of the degree to which
known outbreaks correspond to seed contamination.
In light of our limited knowledge, we
think the wisest course is to follow sound practices likely to reduce the
incidence of pathological contamination.
We mentioned here
that Primus has been kind enough to donate its services in an experiment to
grow alfalfa to be used in sprouting under conditions fit for human
consumption. We asked
for volunteers from retailers and those able to farm some alfalfa.
We’ve secured a wonderful retail partner willing to advance the cause of food
safety — and we will be unveiling its name soon.
We are still seeking a farmer to grow
some alfalfa for this project. This can be either a traditional alfalfa
grower looking to learn the most advanced standards in growing food for
human consumption or a produce grower who is willing to set aside a few
acres for alfalfa to participate in this pilot project.
There are many issues in sprout growing,
but a precept of food safety is that prevention is better than remediation,
and one of the known problems with alfalfa sprout production is that the
seed is raised for animal use — and then diverted to human consumption. We
believe that growing the seed with the same standards we would use for
ready-to-eat products such as leafy greens would reduce the likelihood of
contamination.
If you are a farmer willing to
participate in this project and grow some alfalfa under such conditions,
please let us know here.
This would be a significant contribution to a safer food supply.
We thank both Earl Hauserman of Brassica
Protection Products and Bob Rust of International Specialty Supply for
trying to clarify these issues.
We encourage the whole sprouting supply
chain to lay down the hatchet and try to work together to build a safer
food supply.
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