BBC News reports that the number of deaths attributed to the cucumbers has now increased in ten. Our sister blog Food Safety Chat identifies all the food safety recalls over the last four years that are attributed to fresh produce. First reports determined that the batch of cucumbers were organic but current press reports do not identify this.
As the investigation develops then traceability systems will be tested as well as farm assurance standards - were the cucumbers from a farm assured source? The Institute of Food Science and Technology has written a Produce Safety Statement which highlights the need for good agricultural practice . This is especially important when producing foods that do not contain a cooking stage to reduce pathogens (harmful bacterial) to a safe level e.g. cucumbers.
Back in August 2008 when the US approved the use of irradiation for spinanch and lettuce I wrote the following and I reinterate it three years later:
"The underlying point though is whether we should have pre-requisite programmes (farm assurance) in place to minimise the risk of contamination of our food ...... Would I want to eat food that was safe but had been irradiated because there was:
- No food safety risk assessment;
- No irrigation water standards;
- No personal hygiene programme;
- No pest control programme (rats, mice etc);
- No premises and equipment hygiene standards;
- No intake inspection and supplier approval process;
- No packaging control procedures;
- No training procedures?"
In time we will see what the source of this E.coli bacteria turns out to be - in previous outbreaks it has usually been either contaminated irrigation water or incorrect practices with organic manures (rather than artificial chemicals). This incident is not alone however and practices have changed radically in Europe for those who are farm assured since the Europe wide Shigella outbreak in 1994 associated with Spanish lettuce. Last year, there was an E.coli 0145 outbreak in the US associated with romaine lettuce and this month in the US recalls for tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers last month for Salmonella.
Check out the Red Tractor farm assurance standard for more details. Globally the assurance standard is called GlobalGAP.
Postscript: Further research after this post has suggested that Spain may not be the source of the infection as highlighted in the initial media reports.
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