Killing E. coli in Lettuce With Irradiation

Posted on December 8, 2010 by PritzkerLaw

Texas researchers say they have found a way to kill E. coli in lettuce and other fresh produce using low doses of irradiation that don't also destroy the texture of the food.

The goal was to kill E. coli 0157:H7, Salmonella and other pathogens in leafy green vegetables and other fresh produce, including fruits. The team of Texas AgriLife Research engineers at Texas A&M University says it has developed a way to cut by as much as half the amount of irradiation needed to kill 99.999 percent of these organisms. 

Dr. Carmen Gomes, AgriLife Research food safety engineer, and her colleagues found they could significantly reduce the amount of radiation needed to achieve the result if the produce was packaged in a Mylar bag filled with pure oxygen. Besides the food safety benefit, it is a way to preserve quality of the produce, she said in a Texas A&M report. Previously, higher doses of radiation were proven effective in killing harmful bacteria, but they made the food mushy. In other words, tests showed modified packaging containing either pure oxygen or the nitrogen/oxygen mix increased the sensitivity of E. coli, Salmonella or Listeria to radiation without changing the way the radiation affected the vegetables.

The AgriLife Research Food Safety Engineering Team at Texas A&M began work in 2002 with a $1 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. The team is the only one in the nation doing research that focuses on accurate dose calculations and dose distribution within a variety of complex-shaped foods, such as blueberries, bagged spinach and lettuce, mangoes and cantaloupes, according to the university.

E. coli in lettuce, spinach and other fresh produce has been identified over the past several years as an emerging public health threat. As recently as last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that fresh produce increasingly has been implicated in viral disease outbreaks.

"Fewer than 10 infectious viral particles are sufficient to cause disease and these organisms are resistant to (chlorine) disinfectants at concentrations that reduce bacterial levels. Contamination of fresh produce could pose a health risk to humans because fresh produce is eaten raw. High levels of viral contamination can result in large outbreaks,'' according to a letter in CDC's Emerging Infectious Diseases publication.

According to a 2010 study published by the Produce Safety Project, 39 percent of E. coli outbreaks and 54 percent of E. coli illnesses linked to FDA-regulated food items were attributable to produce at an estimated cost of $39 billion per year.

When people are sickened or killed in these outbreaks, they have turned to national food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., for representation in Salmonella and E. coli litigation. Our firm represents victims of food poisoning around the country and has collected millions of dollars for families and individuals who incur large medical expenses, remarkable pain and suffering and losses to income from infections caused by contaminated food. To speak to a food safety lawyer at our firm, call 1-888-377-8900 (toll free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.

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Freshway Lettuce Linked as E. coli Source

Posted on May 10, 2010 by PritzkerLaw

An unopened bag of shredded romaine lettuce distributed by Freshway Foods has tested positive for the same strain of E. coli O145 that has sickened at least 19 people in Ohio, Michigan and New York.

That announcement from the Food and Drug Administration was paired with news that lettuce recalled by Ohio-based Freshway came from the same farm in Yuma, Arizona, that supplied Vaughn Foods of Moore, Oklahoma.

Now Vaughn is recalling romaine lettuce with “use‐by” dates of May 9 and May 10. As was the case at Freshway, the recalled romaine lettuce distributed by Vaughan Foods was sold to restaurants and food service facilities and was not available for purchase as a grocery item. 

To date, there have been 19 confirmed and additional unconfirmed cases of E. coli O145 infections in Michigan, Ohio, and New York. These illnesses include 12 individuals who have been hospitalized, and three with a potentially life threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS).

HUS is a serious condition in which the body’s blood-clotting mechanisms are altered, causing blocked circulation or bleeding in the brain or kidneys.

The Freshway lettuce recall was announced last week in connection with the outbreak  in Columbus, Ohio; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Amherst, New York and Wappingers Falls, New York (where K-12 students were the victims). 
Federal and state investigators are attempting to determine the point in the supply chain where the contamination occurred and are investigating a farm in the Yuma, Arizona area from which the romaine lettuce was harvested. Lettuce harvested from other geographic areas does not appear to be associated with this outbreak, the FDA news release said.
The FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourage anyone who has experienced E. coli symptoms following ingestion of romaine lettuce products described here to contact his or her health care provider immediately.
 
For answers to legal questions about the E. coli O145 outbreak, call Pritzker Olsen at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page. Our firm is a leading representative of food poisoning victims nationwide. We are involved in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness and have collected millions for our clients.
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Freshway Lettuce E. coli Spotlights Yuma

Posted on May 9, 2010 by PritzkerLaw

 In 2007, National Public Radio did a feature story about the burgeoning winter lettuce industry in Yuma, Arizona.

The kicker to the story was that unlike the Salinas Valley in California, home to the majority of summer-grown leafy green produce -- the Yuma area was free of lettuce E. coli problems. The story quoted Kurt Nolte, then a University of Arizona professor, as saying E. coli in lettuce had not been detected in 100 years of growing leafy greens in Yuma.

All that could change if the Food and Drug Administration confirms its suspicion that an outbreak of E. coli O145 in Michigan, Ohio and New York was caused by romaine harvested on a Yuma farm. The key to the investigation will be to determine not only where the lettuce was grown, but if it was tainted in the field, at handling stations in Yuma, at the Freshway Foods processing plant in Ohio or en route by truck.

So far, investigators have confirmed 19 E. coli O145 infections and 10 more people are being counted as probable cases in this Freshway lettuce E. coli outbreak. Three of the victims have developed life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and the group of infected persons includes K-12 students from Wappingers Falls, New York.

Food safety law firm Pritzker Olsen has been in contact with victims of the outbreak and is providing free consultations to anyone affected by it. An E. coli attorney can be reached at 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or by completing the contact form on the side of this Web page.

The winter lettuce season in Yuma typically runs from November through March or early April. Ohio-based Freshway has said the batch of lettuce that it recalled as part of the E. coli outbreak was harvested at the tail end of the season in Yuma.

Located in Arizona's southwestern desert, Yuma drew 50,000 people in January to the 12th annual Yuma Lettuce Days celebration. The festival celebrates the area's $700 million-a-year agriculture business, which is irrigated by the Colorado River.

The sponsors of the event included Taylor Farms, BLT Companies and Doug Mellon Farms Inc.

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Lettuce E. coli Found at Wappingers Falls Schools in New York

Posted on May 7, 2010 by PritzkerLaw

Several school students in Wappingers Falls, New York, are believed to be among those sickened in the E. coli O145 outbreak linked to Freshway Foods shredded Romaine lettuce.

District Superintendent James Parla told the Poughkeepsie Journal that there were two confirmed cases of E. coli, three probable cases and one suspected case. The students go to Roy C. Ketcham High School, John Jay High School, Wappingers Junior High School and Van Wyck Middle School.

Michael Caldwell, the Dutchess County health commissioner, said an initial stool sample from one of the children who was sick seemed to link it to the larger outbreak. In addition, a Freshway Foods lettuce sample from the school tested positive for E. coli.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Freshway Foods lettuce E. coli outbreak currently involves 19 confirmed illnesses and 10 probable illnesses in New York, Ohio and Michigan since March 1. Three of the victims have suffered life-threatening hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and investigators believe the contaminated lettuce originated on a farm in Yuma, Arizona at the end of the winter lettuce season.

The bacterium in this outbreak is E. coli O145 -- which often goes undetected because testing for this type of E. coli is not widely practiced. It is one of the six most common non-O157 types of E. coli and emits the same powerful and destructive toxin -- Shiga toxin -- that comes from E. coli O157:H7.

The problem at Wappingers Falls started last month when several school children reported diarrheal illness. Previously it was known that students from Ohio State University, University of Michigan and Daemen College of Amherst, New York, were involved in the outbreak.

The link to shredded lettuce was announced Thursday when Sidney, Ohio,-based Freshway Foods announced a recall of Romaine lettuce in 23 states and Washington, D.C. A New York state laboratory in Albany found the outbreak strain of E. coli O145 in a previously unopened bag of shredded Romaine lettuce from Freshway Foods that had been sold to a foodservice establishment where at least one person is believed to have gotten sick.

If you or a loved one have been sickened in this outbreak, contact law firm Pritzker Olsen for free answers to your legal questions at 1-888-377-8900. For a free consultation online, complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.

Pritzker Olsen is a national leader in foodborne illness litigation and we have collected tens of millions of dollars for victims of food poisoning over the years. We are involved in practically every major outbreak of foodborne illness representing victims.

In the Freshway Foods case, we have been in contact with public health professionals who are working on the outbreak. In addition, we are conducting our own investigation to determine how potentially deadly disease-causing organisms made their way to people's food trays in an undeniable cluster.

Note to consumers: This outbreak is apparently not related to packaged Romaine lettuce sold in grocery aisles. It was distributed to foodservice accounts including cafeterias, delis, restaurants and grab-and-go salad bars inside grocery stores. The recall involves Freshway Foods lettuce marked with a sell-by date of May 12 and sold under the Freshway brand or the Imperial Sysco brand.

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