Tag: Guest blog post

Guest Blog: Safe Employees = Safe Food

The following Guest Blog first appeared on Marler Blog, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author, Bill Marler.

Safe Employees = Safe Food

When AP reported this week that an owner of Jensen Farms was being fined by the U.S. Department of Labor for failing to provide safe migrant worker housing, I must admit even I was a bit shocked. Could it be that an owner of a business that allowed the deadly fecal bacteria Listeria to coat its product would also treat its employees like crap too?

Well, apparently yes. It seems that Eric Jensen, the Colorado Cantaloupe grower that caused an outbreak that killed 30 (by my count 32) – sickening a total of 146 – people, rented migrant workers unsanitary, overcrowded rooms at a motel he owns. Inspectors said many rooms lacked beds, laundry facilities and smoke detectors. Jensen now faces a whopping $4,250 in civil penalties. As the Department’s Denver director said:

“Profiting at the expense of vulnerable workers is not just inhumane, it’s illegal.”

I would add immoral and really, really stupid – especially when it comes to producing safe food.

Less we forget, the FDA and the staff of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee found a number of safety lapses at Jensen Farms that likely led to the outbreak:

  • Condensation from cooling systems draining directly onto the floor,
  • Poor drainage resulting in water pooling around the food processing equipment,
  • Inappropriate food processing equipment which was difficult to clean (i.e., Listeria found on the felt roller brushes),
  • No antimicrobial solution, such as chlorine, in the water used to wash the cantaloupes,
  • No equipment to remove field heat from the cantaloupes before they were placed into 
cold storage, and
  • FDA officials were highly critical of the processing methods used at Jensen Farms. According to these FDA officials, the probable causes of the melon contamination at Jensen Farms included “serious design flaws” in the processing technique used at Jensen Farms, “poor sanitary design of the facility itself,” and “lack of awareness of food safety standards by Jensen Farms.” In particular, FDA emphasized to Committee staff that the processing equipment and the decision not to chlorinate the water used to wash the cantaloupes were two probable causes of the contamination.

Hmm, does this sound familiar to you? Remember the sickening of 1939 people with Salmonella and the recall of 500,000,000 eggs in 2010 linked to Iowa’s Wright County Egg? Who could forget the FDA inspection report highlights of some of its findings at Wright County:

  • Chicken manure located in the manure pits below the egg laying operations was observed to be approximately 4 feet high to 8 feet high at the following locations: Layer 1 – House 1; Layer 3 – Houses 2, 7, 17, and 18. The outside access doors to the manure pits at these locations had been pushed out by the weight of the manure, leaving open access to wildlife or domesticated animals,
  • Un-baited, unsealed holes appearing to be rodent burrows located along the second floor baseboards were observed inside Layer 1 – Houses 1-9 and 11-13; Layer 2 – Houses 7 and 11; Layer 3 – Houses 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6; Layer 4 – House 3,
  • Dark liquid which appeared to be manure was observed seeping through the concrete foundation to the outside of the laying houses at the following locations: Layer 1 – Houses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 11, 12, and 14; and Layer 3 – Houses 1, 8, 13, and 17,
  • Standing water approximately 3 inches deep was observed at the southeast corner of the manure pit located inside Layer 1 – House 13,
  • Un-caged birds (chickens having escaped) were observed in the egg laying operations in contact with the egg laying birds at Layer 3 – Houses 9 and 16. The un-caged birds were using the manure, which was approximately 8 feet high, to access the egg laying area,
  • Layer 3 – House 11, the house entrance door to access both House 11 and 12 was blocked with excessive amounts of manure in the manure pits,
  • There were between 2 to 5 live mice observed inside the egg laying Houses 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, and 14, and
  • Live and dead flies too numerous to count were observed at the following locations inside the egg laying houses: Layer 1 – Houses 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, and 12; Layer 2 – Houses 7 and 11; Layer 3 – Houses 3, 4, 4, 5, 7, 8, 15, 16, 17, and 18. The live flies were on and around egg belts, feed, shell eggs and walkways in the different sections of each egg laying area. In addition, live and dead maggots too numerous to count were observed on the manure pit floor located in Layer 2 – House 7.

And, guess what else – the owner of Wright County, Jack DeCoster, cared little for his employees too. A few examples:

  • In 1997, DeCoster Egg Farms agreed to pay $2 million in fines to settle citations brought in 1996 for health and safety violations at DeCoster’s farm in Turner, Maine. Then-Labor Secretary Robert Reich said conditions were:

“As dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop.”

  • In 2002, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a more than $1.5 million settlement of an employment discrimination lawsuit against DeCoster Farms on behalf of Mexican women who reported they were subjected to sexual harassment, including rape, abuse and retaliation by some supervisory workers at DeCoster’s Wright County plants.

And, who can forget Stewart Parnell and the Peanut Corporation of America Salmonella outbreak of 2009 that sickened 714 persons in 46 states – killing nine. The FDA reported that the company shipped tainted products under three conditions: (1) without retesting, (2) before the re-test results came back from an outside company, and (3) after a second test showed no bacterial contamination.

As one PCA employee was quoted as saying:

“I never ate the peanut butter, and I wouldn’t allow my kids to eat it.”

My strong suspicion is that Jensen Farm workers were not eating Jensen Farm cantaloupes as they sat in their overcrowded hotel rooms. And, I would be willing to bet that Wright County employees were not taking a dozen eggs home to the family from work.

Perhaps there is a lesson here? Perhaps how you treat your employees, and how the employee feels about the product, says volumes about the quality and safety of the product? If the employees will not eat the product, perhaps that products should simply not be sold.

About the author: Bill Marler is a personal injury and products liability attorney, and an internationally known food safety advocate. He began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Bill is a graduate of the Seattle University School of Law, and the Law School’s “Lawyer in Residence.”

Guest Blog: Dealing in Death – Cantaloupes and Listeria

The following Guest Blog first appeared on Marler Blog, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of its author, Bill Marler.

Dealing in Death – Cantaloupes and Listeria

Since “organicfarmer” posted this comment on Food Safety News last week, I have not been able to shake it from my head:

It’s really sad that farms and farmers are getting the brunt of this. I am sad these people died, but median age of 78…. give me a break. In my opinion there is no possible way to make all food safe for all people. I grow food, take extreme precautions to keep the farm as clean from pathogens as possible, but these bacteria are everywhere in the soil. Advances in science are a double edged sword. People have succumbed from so-called food poisons since the beginning of time. It’s probably good common sense to not eat raw foods if you’re old or have a compromised immune system. Now pathogenic bacteria have been found inside the cells of lettuce. No amount of washing will ‘clean’ it.

Perhaps because I spent most of the last week talking to families whose parents or spouses are fighting for their lives or have died too soon – because they ate a damn cantaloupe – or because I am about to drive out to see by 80 plus year old parents, I find “organicfamer’s” comments insensitive at best.  Certainly his attitude towards the elderly makes me wonder who purchases his farm products?  Frankly, I would take a pass.

Of course his response to me calling him out on his “shit happens” approach to life is to trot out how bad lawyers are and to say about me: “I resent him and all he stands for.”

Dear Mr. unnamed “organicfarmer”, this is what I stand for – people should not be sickened and/or die from eating cantaloupe.  Here is just a sample of people impacted and have the courage to stick up for themselves and other consumers by filing lawsuits – and using their names openly:

William Beach 2.jpegWilliam T. Beach consumed cantaloupe in early August. Mr. Beach subsequently fell ill and on approximately August 28th, was taken to the hospital by ambulance after his wife, Monette, found him collapsed on the living room floor, unable to speak or breathe regularly. Mr. Beach was discharged from the hospital two days later, but his condition worsened and he was again rushed to the hospital, where he died after a failed intubation procedure. The Oklahoma State Department of Health later contacted one of Mr. Beach’s six daughters to inform them that Mr. Beach had tested positive for Listeria and died from his infection.

Clarence Wells.jpegClarence Wells consumed cantaloupe on multiple occasions before becoming ill with symptoms of Listeria infection, including fluid retention, on August 23, 2011. By August 25, Mr. Wells had gained 9 pounds and had begun having difficulty breathing. He was taken to the emergency room, and was admitted to John’s Hopkins Medical Center later that day. On the morning of August 31, Mr. Wells’ condition deteriorated and his family was called to the hospital, where they found him unconscious. They never spoke to him, or saw him awake, again. Mr. Wells died the evening of August 31, 2011.

Gomez copy.jpgJuanita Gomez consumed cantaloupe purchased from a local grocery store in early August. By August 20, Mrs. Gomez became ill and developed a fever. When her symptoms progressed, she was taken to the hospital where her temperature measured 105.6 degrees F, her eyes became glassy, and she was unable to respond to simple questions. Tests later confirmed she had been infected with the same strain of Listeria linked to an ongoing outbreak that has been traced to defendant Jensen Farms’ Rocky Ford cantaloupe. Mrs. Gomez was released from the hospital on August 24 and continues to recover at her home

CharlesPalmerPic.jpegCharles Palmer consumed the Listeria-contaminated cantaloupe in mid-August. He had purchased one whole cantaloupe at the Wal-Mart store located on Razorback Road in Colorado Springs several days before. He fell ill with symptoms of listeriosis, the illness caused by Listeria infection, including headache and fatigue, on August 30. The next morning, Mr. Palmer’s wife found him unresponsive and immediately rushed her husband to the hospital, where he has remained ever since. He has tested positive for Listeria monocytogenes, the strain of Listeria involved in the cantaloupe outbreak.

Herbert Stevens and his wife purchased Jensen Farms-grown Rocky Ford cantaloupe from a Littleton grocery store in early August. On August 24, 84-year-old Mr. Stevens fell ill with symptoms of listeriosis and became incapacitated. He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he tested positive for the same strain of Listeria that is involved in the cantaloupe Listeria outbreak. Mr. Stevens remained hospitalized until several days ago, when he was transferred to a long-term care facility. It is not clear if he will be able to return home.

And, “organicfamer” there are dozens of others I spoke to – the family of an 80 year old man who needlessly died in Nebraska and the 56 year old who died in Kansas, or the others who became ill and are struggling to recover, or the ones still in ICU on life support who will soon raise the CDC death toll.

Mr. “organicfarmer,” there are a lot of people who hate me – mostly corporations who poison people – and, honestly, I really do not give a damn.  Mr. “organicfamer” you may hate me along with the Cargills, Doles, et al of the world – you, my friend are in fine company.

About the author: Bill Marler is a personal injury and products liability attorney, and an internationally known food safety advocate. He began litigating foodborne illness cases in 1993, when he represented Brianne Kiner, the most seriously injured survivor of the Jack in the Box E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. Bill is a graduate of the Seattle University School of Law, and the Law School’s “Lawyer in Residence.”

Guest Blog: Phage Therapy – The Other Antibiotic Treatment

by G.W. (Bill) Riedel, PhD, MCIC


If I suggested that a cure for the cholera outbreak in Haiti could be found in the same rivers thought to be responsible for the outbreak in the first place, most people would consider me crazy. But they’d be wrong.


In 1896 the British bacteriologist, Ernest Hankin discovered marked antibacterial activity – against Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera – in the waters of the Ganges and Jumna rivers in India. He suggested that an unidentified substance (which passed through fine porcelain filters and was destroyed by heat) was responsible for this phenomenon and for limiting the spread of cholera epidemics.


It wasn’t until 1917, though, that French-Canadian microbiologist Felix D’Herelle – working at the Pasteur Institute – realized that the antibacterial activity discovered by Hankin was due to viruses that preyed on bacteria. D’Herelle named these viruses “bacteriophages” (phages for short).


Bacteriophages are viruses that are parasitic to bacteria and cannot multiply independently. Each phage can only infect a specific bacterial host, as it has to be able to link with special structures on the surface of the bacterial cell. Once attached, the phage injects its DNA into the host cell. The phage DNA hijacks the reproductive mechanism of the bacterial cell, causing the infected bacterium to produce 50 to 200 daughter phages in as little as 30 minutes. Finally, the infected cell bursts – releasing the new crop of phages and starting another cycle of infection and phage reproduction.


Prior to the discovery of the electron microscope in 1940, no one could see bacteriophages, even with high-powered conventional microscopes. Early studies of phage behavior and reproduction depended on adding phages to liquid cultures in which bacteria had grown, and observing the clearing of the turbid broth and destruction of the bacteria. In other experiments, scientists observed and counted clear zones in layers of bacterial growth on solid culture media.


Soon after he discovered and named bacteriophages, D’Herelle began to experiment with the possibility of using phages to cure, and even prevent, bacterial infections. The fruits of his efforts survive to this day in Tbilisi, Georgia at the Phage Therapy Center, which welcomes patients from all over the world.


In Poland, at The Hirszfeld Institute and of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, phage therapy is carried out under medical experimentation, ethical and compassionate use regulatory provisions similar to those that exist in most countries. A broad range of infections have been treated since the initial anti-staphylococcal treatment in 1925. The Institute requires that all patients treated must have previously been treated – unsuccessfully – with conventional methods such as antibiotics. Since the 1980s, their work with phages has been published in English language scientific journals. Very high success rates – 85% on average – have been obtained for infections caused by bacteria such as Escherichia, Klebsiella, Proteus, Enterobacter, Pseudomonas, and Staphylococcus aureus. Their success rates for treating Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus, including MRSA strains, have been reported to be even higher than 85%.


Phage biology was not well understood in D’Herelle’s time, and results from early attempts at phage therapy treatments were inconsistent. Once antibiotics appeared, interest in phage therapy in the West waned – until antibiotic-resistance and superbugs rekindled research efforts. As of this writing, Phase I trials of phage therapy treatments are being planned or have been completed in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Australia and India.


In the USA, “phage therapy” (a.k.a. biocontrol) has received the most attention – and the greatest acceptance – in non-clinical applications. The FDA recognizes a bacteriophage preparation made by Intralytix as a safe antimicrobial for control of Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products. Another phage preparation, Agriphage, a phage product that is commercially available from Omnilytics, is used primarily to treat bacterial damage of tomatoes and peppers, and has been recognized as being compatible with organic food production. The status of clinical phage therapy in the US was laid out clearly in a March 31, 2009 Popular Science article, The Next Phage.


Is it absurd that phage biocontrol products are accepted in the West for prevention or treatment of contamination in food, but not available to patients suffering from antibiotic-resistant infections? I, for one, think so. If you are interested in learning more and forming your own opinion, the following resources will be helpful.


 

 

 

About the author: Before his retirement from Health Canada, G.W. (Bill) Riedel, PhD., MCIC, was Chief, Program Development and Evaluation Division, in Health Canada’s Field Operations Directorate. Bill organized and moderated a symposium entitled “Phage therapy as it applies to food public health bacteriology” at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Institute of Food Technologists in Chicago, and he has given a number of presentations on phage therapy.