At E. Coli Hunt's End, A Safety Standards Gap

On Wednesday, New Mexico officials said they found the strain of E. coli involved in the outbreak in an opened bag of spinach from which a victim had eaten; that helped investigators with further details such as what fields the tainted crop may have come from. Yesterday, FDA officials sent six more investigators into the fields, bringing the total to 19.

Over the past decade, outbreaks of E. coli caused by fresh produce have become more frequent, while the number caused by meat and poultry has declined. Consumer advocates and some food safety experts believe the disparity reflects differences in the regulation of fresh produce and of meat and poultry.

The bifurcated system, which puts the U.S. Department of Agriculture in charge of meat and poultry and gives the FDA oversight of the rest of the food supply, has changed little since its creation a century ago following publication of "The Jungle," Upton Sinclair's expose of Chicago slaughterhouses.

Last year, the FDA's approximately 800 inspectors conducted about 20,000 food safety inspections of all non-meat products, allowing them to visit a processing plant on average once every few years. By contrast, the USDA, which has an inspector daily in more than 6,000 processing plants nationwide, performs the same number of inspections in a matter of days, said Tony Corbo, a lobbyist with Food and Water Watch.

"I liken this to Jack in the Box all over again," said Michael Doyle, director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety. He was referring to a 1993 outbreak of E. coli in Jack in the Box hamburgers that sickened hundreds and killed three.

After that episode, the USDA mandated tougher processing standards, which food safety experts credit with lowering the frequency of meat- and poultry-related E. coli and salmonella outbreaks.

"Until the government comes in and says we're going to have a law here . . . I don't think we're going to make any monumental change in improving the safety of bagged salads in general," Doyle said.

Food safety in the fresh produce industry is largely a matter of self-regulation. Typically, the FDA and state health department officials can inspect only processing plants and don't venture onto farms unless there's an outbreak. The FDA doesn't have the power to order recalls, though it can seize food before it has gone to retailers if a producer doesn't agree to one. The federal government has more powers when it comes to produce that has a plant disease that threatens other crops, DeWaal said.

Growers and processors say they have an added layer of scrutiny from third-party auditors they hire "to avoid the situation we're seeing now," said Bob Perkins, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau.

The FDA was more assertive after the 19th episode of E. coli-tainted greens last October, sending a warning letter to the industry, which in the following months worked out a set of voluntary best practices for farmers and processors.

Yesterday, industry leaders were talking again about more voluntary guidelines.

Earlier this month, the FDA and California state officials, with the cooperation of the industry, began visiting fields and processing plants to get a better grasp of possible sources of contamination.

Industry leaders and some food safety experts contend there is no point to further regulation until scientists can figure out how produce becomes contaminated with E. coli.

"If you don't know what the problem is how is that inspector going to help you?" said Jerry Welcome, spokesman for the United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association. "Is the answer throwing inspectors in and putting more regulations in, or do we need to spend more time and effort to figure out how does it happen?"