Safe Food_ Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism - Marion Nestle [170]
Regulations are politically unpopular. They are difficult to implement, generate costs, and are not always applied fairly or consistently. But without accountability and enforcement, nothing stops outbreaks from occurring. Without a congressional mandate to take stronger action, the FDA again in July 2009 issued guidance to the producers of lettuce and spinach, necessarily voluntary and nonbinding.24
TABLE 16. Selected examples of food recalls and outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States, 2006-2009
2006: Iceberg Lettuce, Taco Bell (E. coli O157:H7). This incident exposed the challenges faced by investigators looking for the source of outbreaks caused by restaurant meals. Late in 2006, nine of eleven people in New Jersey who became ill from foodborne E. coli said they had eaten at a Taco Bell restaurant. Because meat is cooked—a kill step—investigators focused on foods eaten raw: cilantro, cheese, green onions, yellow onions, tomatoes, and shredded lettuce. These came from a central distributor and were difficult to trace, but Taco Bell reported finding E. coli O157:H7 in green onions from a California supplier. It removed the onions from its restaurants and stopped the supply chain.25
The company also launched a public relations offensive. It bought full-page advertisements, sent out news releases, and conducted nearly a thousand interviews with the media. Its president explained, “Neither the health department nor we know what caused [the outbreak]. Not everybody that got sick ate at Taco Bell.” A manager said, “We’re losing money for no reason. . . . Nobody found anything and nobody proved anything.”26
What food was the source? Federal investigators did their own testing, cleared green onions, and identified the outbreak strain in one sample of yellow onions. The CDC identified foods eaten more frequently by people who had become ill—lettuce, cheddar cheese, and ground beef—and guessed that lettuce was the most likely source. Because multiple Taco Bell outlets were involved, the lettuce must have been contaminated early in the distribution chain. With that uncertain speculation, the CDC investigations concluded.27
Calls for regulation followed. Eric Schlosser wrote, “Aside from industry lobbyists and their Congressional allies, there is little public support for the right to sell contaminated food. Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, you still have to eat.” A New York Times editorial said, “Surely it is time to give government regulators the power and resources they need to ensure the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables.”28 Representatives introduced food safety bills in Congress. None passed.
2007: Pet Foods (Melamine). In March 2007, Menu Foods, a Canadian pet food manufacturer, recalled a record-breaking sixty million cans and pouches sold under ninety-five brand names.29 Although this incident involved pet, not human, food, it was such a stunning example of safety systems gone awry that I thought it deserved book-length analysis: Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine (University of California Press, 2008).
To summarize: Menu Foods obtained two ingredients commonly used to increase the protein content of pet foods, wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate, through a supply chain that began in China. There, manufacturers fraudulently added an industrial chemical, melamine, to wheat flour and sold it as wheat and rice proteins. Melamine is 67 percent nitrogen. Because tests for protein in food actually measure nitrogen, not protein itself, melamine fooled the test and boosted the apparent protein content.
Melamine, a constituent of plastic dinnerware, is toxic only when consumed in large amounts. But when mixed with one of its by-products, cyanuric acid, even small amounts spontaneously form crystals in the urinary tracts of dogs and cats. More than six thousand pet owners participated in class-action lawsuits and were awarded $30 million in judgments. The FDA, which regulates pet food as animal feed, was overwhelmed by calls from distraught pet owners,