Thread: Produce safety center planned

This story is taken from Sacbee / Business.


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Produce safety center planned
UCD facility financed by industry, state is first devoted to fruit, vegetable protection.
By Jim Downing - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, April 11, 2007
In March, the government investigation of last year's outbreak of E. coli in bagged spinach concluded with no answers about its exact cause -- and a call to scientists for help.

"Research is absolutely critical" to understand how the bacteria spread and what can be done to stop them, Kevin Reilly,the lead investigator for the state, said at the time.

Today, produce industry leaders and the state of California will respond with a contribution of $4.65 million to create the Center for Produce Safety at the University of California, Davis. It will be the nation's first research program devoted solely to making fresh fruits and vegetables safer.

The Produce Marketing Association, an international trade group, contributed the initial $2 million to the new center, which will be based at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security on the UC Davis campus. Taylor Farms, a major produce company with headquarters in Salinas, donated $2 million.

The state Department of Food and Agriculture added $500,000, with UC Davis contributing another $150,00. Linda Harris, associate director of research at the Western Institute for Food Safety and Security, said the startup money, meant to last through 2008, will be awarded as competitive grants.

A board consisting of representatives from industry, academia and government will direct the program. Agreements covering the ownership of intellectual property generated by the research have yet to be negotiated.

A group at the institute has focused on food safety in leafy greens since late 2005, and recently funded $300,000 in short-term research projects on E. coli contamination, Harris said.

But having an entire center devoted to problems in produce should allow researchers to take on longer-term projects.

"It will allow us to tackle the bigger questions," Harris said.

Michael Doyle, an expert on E. coli who directs the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, said there's no shortage of those big questions.

For instance, he said, there's little baseline information on the prevalence and habitat preferences of the particularly dangerous strain of E. coli known as 0157:H7. Most surveys of E. coli in the environment have looked only for the so-called "generic" strain of the bacteria, which may not be correlated with the more harmful version.

A better understanding of 0157:H7 would help to focus efforts to contain it, he said.

Doyle said much work still needs to be done to improve tests for dangerous micro-organisms. Other projects could focus on ways to reduce or eliminate populations of 0157:H7 at their main source, the guts of cattle.

There are four major food safety research centers in the United States, including Doyle's in Georgia, which studies a range of food safety issues. Davis' Western Institute for Food Safety and Security is the only such lab west of the Mississippi River.

Doyle said the produce industry needs to commit to long-term support for research.

Lorna Christie, a senior vice president at the Produce Marketing Association, said the industry was "committed to appropriate funding for ongoing research."

The decision to found the produce-safety center grew out the industry's rapid realization, after the outbreaks last fall, that it needed to address consumers' food safety concerns aggressively, she said.

Sales of fresh bagged greens tumbled after last year's first major E. coli episode, identified in September. That outbreak killed three people and sickened 205 in 26 states. The produce industry has been hit with lawsuits filed on behalf of the victims of that and other outbreaks.


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Hope they figure something out. I know they practically try to give it away here but people just don't feel safe buying it.

I remember when we didn't have to have a produce safety center...you know before illegals?

This is BOGUS!

Another way to redistribute money back into their pockets.

WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' PRODUCE RESEARCH CENTER!

We need for ILLEGALS to be sent home and clean up the fields from their unsanitary conditions. PERIOD

I agree Sis,

American standards are sinking fast with all of the recent food contamination! Another reason to say grace before each meal!

Keep the illegals from cr*ping in the fields by deporting them, and the problem is solved, and there will be no need to waste more money on another government agency.

Besides, don't we already have the United States Department of Agriculture? They've been doing fine for years without the need for another agency.

Seriously, what are they going to call it, the United States Department for Sh*t Inspection?

Originally Posted by Hylander_1314

Keep the illegals from cr*ping in the fields by deporting them, and the problem is solved, and there will be no need to waste more money on another government agency.

Besides, don't we already have the United States Department of Agriculture? They've been doing fine for years without the need for another agency.

Seriously, what are they going to call it, the United States Department for Sh*t Inspection?

SIS and Hylander got it right, just another agency to waste taxpayer dollars, It is really ticking me off. I went to buy one of those little watermelons the other day, sticker said Mexico, I said NO WAY.

I buy very few fruits and veggies any more and I don't give a damn what the doctor says, I am at a bigger health risk eating this S___t than going with out it.
Drink V8 its been processed and you get all your veggie's!!