F.D.A. Suggests Voluntary Guidelines for Produce Growers
Spurred by numerous recent food-borne illness outbreaks, the ever-prescient F.D.A. decided to give the fresh-cut produce industry some helpful advice on Monday, in the form of non-binding “guidelines” for safe handling practices. Non-binding, meaning processors can choose to follow the advice or not, unlike the mandatory rules for safe handling the meat industry has to follow. It took the F.D.A. seven years to come up with these guidelines, and even now, the agency admits they have no real idea what caused the recent outbreaks, or what would be the best way to prevent future ones.
Lots of people think this is a bum deal, including me and my representative - Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D, Connecticut). “At a time when the country is experiencing numerous food-borne illness outbreaks…” says Rep. DeLauro. “it is disappointing that the F.D.A. issues a nonbinding, voluntary guidance document that does nothing and merely tells growers what they already know.” Caroline Smith deWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, agreed, calling the F.D.A.’s announcement “too little, too late.”
The F.D.A’s feeble defense is that couldn’t issue regulations without “complete scientific proof” of what caused the disease outbreaks. That doesn’t cut it with Ms. deWaal. “We don’t need perfect science to tell the industry to enforce many common sense safety precautions, like farm workers washing their hands and testing the wash water to see if a batch of produce is contaminated before combining it with other batches,” she said. Hank Giclas, VP of science and technology for Western Growers, an association representing about half the fresh produce sold in America and almost all Californian produce, agrees that the lack of scientific “proof” shouldn’t stop growers from doing what they can. “We don’t have definitive science in every area, so one of the things we are trying to do is act responsible in the absence of information,” said Giclas.
Most California produce growers are with him. After the recent produce-borne disease outbreaks, California produce growers took a huge beating. They chose to set their own strict rules, in the form of a marketing agreement, to try and prevent more outbreaks, probably realizing they might have to wait years for the F.D.A. to set mandatory safe handling rules. Even though they may not know exactly how the spinach became contaminated with E. Coli, Giclas says they can still “minimize the risk,” by doing simple things like setting guidelines for water quality, and worker sanitation. The president of Western Growers, Tom Nassif, says “Nothing is preventing the F.D.A. from doing what we already have done.”
Nothing except a big ol’ bag of fresh-cut bureaucracy, that is.
