Sprouts can carry foodborne illnesses. Image: Centers for Disease Control
Nearly a quarter of foodborne illnesses in the United States are cause by fresh produce, according to Ohio State University researchers.
Research shows that leafy greens and sprouts cause the most illnesses, said Sarah Klein, senior attorney in Food Safety Program at the Center of Science and Public Interest in Washington D.C. Leafy greens and sprouts cause the most illnesses.
She explained that leafy greens are grown in soil where manure can be used and it is fertilized with irrigation water. Sprouts can carry bacteria in their seed. Sprouts are normally grown in warm and moist conditions that cause the bacteria to grow.
Klein said that the Food Safety Program at the Center of Science and Public Interest is concerned with leafy greens that are put into bags.
“If one piece is contaminated and then chopped up into little pieces, those pieces go into a thousand bags,” she said. “Now thousands of people can get sick.”
Martha Filipic, the technical editor at Ohio State, wrote an article about research that was done by Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center on produce causing foodborne illnesses. Her article explains where people can get educated on how to prevent themselves from getting foodbornes illnesses caused by produce.
Consumers can get foodborne illnesses like E.coli and salmonella from farm grown produce.
Filipic said a lot of factors from the farm to consumers’ homes could affect the produce.
“ Foodborne illnesses can be caused by farmers and food handlers not washing their hands properly,” said Filipic. “Also wildlife can get into the food and leave manure and then it’s minimally processed in the grocery stores.”
Jeff LeJeune, head of the food animal health research program at Ohio State University, said his main focus is prevention.
“There are four steps to take on the farm and at home to prevent consumers from getting sick,” said LeJeune.
On the farm, they are: making sure the water quality for the produce is clean, looking out for potential contamination from fertilizer, keeping wildlife away from the produce and sanitary equipment. At home they are: clean the produce, cook the produce and don’t eat it raw, chill the produce in the refrigerator and separating produce from other foods.
The federal Food Safety Modernization Act is intended to protect consumers and prevent future foodborne illnesses caused by produce, Klein said.
“The purpose of this act is the hope that it will change the nature of how produce is grown,” said Klein. “Farmers are required to follow it.”
While this is a great topic, I was disappointed that the author pointed out “farmers… not washing their hands properly” or wildlife that “get into the food and leave manure” as a cause, while failing to point out that many farmers literally hose their fields down with a slurry of raw manure.
While these applications of manure are ostensibly to fertilize the fields, one of the primary reasons is to dispose of excess waste from concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that is not managed effectively otherwise.