CHICAGO — The Food Safety Summit produced some polite discussion Wednesday, but no clamor for bringing back the Microbiological Data Program (MDP) to test more fresh produce before it reaches consumers. The MDP, about $5 million of annual federal funding for state agricultural laboratories to test fruits and vegetables at picking time, ended after 2012. Prior to that it was responsible for about 80 percent of the fresh produce testing done with federal funds.

Workers place stakes next to tomato seedlings to support the plants as they mature.
Workers place stakes next to tomato seedlings to support the plants as they mature.
But University of Florida Professor Keith R. Schneider told a packed seminar audience that testing so late in the process has “practically zero predictive value.” Schneider, a produce expert especially known for his work with Florida tomatoes, said there may be a place for testing for verification. Schneider instead favors the preventive measures that growers are now working to implement under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). He sees the new law as part of an evolution beginning in 1998 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first published a book of standards for produce. The publication soon became known as “The Green Book” with the produce industry and led to the development of Good Agricultural Policies or GAPs. Schneider, who appeared with Gillian Kelleher, vice president for food safety and quality assurance for Wegmans Foods Markets, said those voluntary measures cut the number of outbreaks involving lettuce, tomatoes and some other produce. Then came the deadly 2006 outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 traced back to bagged spinach, which had enormous impact on consumers because most though the product was entirely safe and certainly free of a pathogen found in the intestinal tracks of cattle. More the 200 people from around the nation were sickened and 31 developed the life-threading Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). The outbreak resulted in three deaths,. Schneider said the spinach outbreak’s devastating impact on the fresh produce industry was met with almost universal reaction from wholesale buyers such as the big retail and restaurant chains. “We cannot ever let this happen again,” he said Schneider said the buyers demanded growers in California and Arizona enter into the “Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA). Like “The Green Book” and GAPs, the LGMA was also a voluntarily food safety move. Schneider said it took time and money to win the consumers back. “You can just say: “Our product isn’t going to kill anybody anymore,” he quipped. In Florida, where tomatoes were too often found contaminated with Salmonella, growers also responded by writing Tomato-GAPs and Tomato-BMPs (Best Management Practices). He said the tomato growers were reeling at the time, but his data shows improvement as time went on. Schneider and Kelleher agree the volunteer standards have for the most part prepared fresh produce growers for the FSMA. “At least they are going in the right direction, “Schneider told the Summit attendees. While the FSMA was signed into law in 2011, a five-year period of rule writing was required before most of its elements could go into effect. There were questions from the audience about what growers might expect when officials from the states and FDA begin showing up for the first “preventive” inspections. Schneider said the deliberate pace of the rule writing was “probably a good thing.” He said there were 15,000 comments on the Produce Rule with one that took 172 pages to make its point. In response to a question, the University of Florida professor did say there are areas where FDA may find there is “no science” available upon which to make a “science-based” decision. The question involved whether parts of mechanical harvesting equipment could be deemed to be “food contact surfaces.” Schneider said its unlikely anyone has studied that subject, but it’s a good bet someone probably will soon. While small growers are exempted and large growers are prepared, each of the speakers did express concern about mid-sized growers. Some medium-sized growers, due to low prices, have allowed their fields to go fallow and others will plow them under if prices do not improve. The now defunct MDP, which a New York Times editorial writer called “a tiny program that matters,” ended when Congress at the Obama Administration’s request eliminated it’s funding. A small USDA office sent the money for testing on to mostly Land Grant universities, which sampled and tested fresh produce from their areas. FDA does still sample and test some fresh produce, mostly at the border. The 18th annual Food Safety Summit Conference & Expo, which is being held for the first time at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL, wraps up today. (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News, click here.)