Hazelnut E. coli Investigation Continues
The Food and Drug Administration is testing for E. coli O157:H7 at an Oregon hazelnut packing company and the California distributor that sold the filberts to retailers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has associated the hazelnuts recalled by D. DeFranco and Sons with an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 that sickened seven people in December and January. One victim is from Michigan and there are three each from Minnesota and Wisconsin. The Minnesota Department of Health has provided the first microbiological link between the hazelnuts and the outbreak. Tests ordered by the state confirmed the presence of the outbreak strain of E. coli in hazelnuts taken from the home of one of the victims.
DeFranco, based in Los Angeles, announced an E. coli hazelnut recall last week. Many of the potentially tainted in-shell filberts were sold in bulk bins at grocery stores. The Oregonian newspaper in Portland, Oregon, reported that most of the hazelnuts came from a processor in Oregon -- George Packing Co. of Newberg. The co-owner of the company is a state senator, Larry George. The firm has resisted FDA attempts to obtain its list of farmers for purposes of the traceback investigation.
Yet George and Polly Owen, manager of the Hazelnut Marketing Board in Oregon, say change is needed in the industry to incorporate tougher food safety measures. Oregon produces nearly all the filberts grown in the United States. There are 650 hazelnut farms in Oregon but only 20 processors. There is speculation that the filberts were contaminated from contaminated patches of ground beneath hazelnut trees. The nuts are harvested after they fall to the orchard floor. E. coli O157:H7 is expelled into the environment in feces from cattle and other animals, including deer.
