Re: Few safeguards for Mexican produce heading north

[hp...@lycos.com]

On Sep 14, 10:32 am, Don Gabacho <jpast...@nettaxi.com> wrote:
> Few safeguards for Mexican produce heading north
> MARK WALSH and OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS
> Originally published 07:40 a.m., September 14, 2008, updated 07:39
> a.m., September 14, 2008
>
> ALLENDE, MEXICO (AP) - At the end of a dirt road in northern Mexico,
> the conveyer belts processing hundreds of tons of vegetables a year
> for U.S. and Mexican markets are open to the elements, protected only
> by a corrugated metal roof.
>
> The U.S. Food and Drug Administration suspects this packing plant, its
> warehouse in McAllen, Texas, and a farm in Mexico are among the
> sources of the United States' largest outbreak of food-borne illness
> in a decade, which infected at least 1,440 people with a rare form of
> salmonella.
>
> A plant manager confirmed to The Associated Press that workers
> handling chili peppers aren't required to separate them according to
> the sanitary conditions in which they were grown, offering a possible
> explanation for how such a rare strain of salmonella could have caused
> such a large outbreak.
>
> The AP has found that while some Mexican producers grow fruits and
> vegetables under strict sanitary conditions for export to the U.S.,
> many don't _ and they can still send their produce across the border
> easily.
>
> Neither the U.S. nor the Mexican governments impose any safety
> requirements on farms and processing plants. That includes those using
> unsanitary conditions _ like those at Agricola Zaragoza _ and brokers
> or packing plants that mix export-grade fruits and vegetables with
> lower-quality produce.
>
> In fact, the only thing a Mexican company needs to do to sell produce
> to the United States is to register online.
>
> Some Mexican farms and processing plants have high standards of
> sanitation _ and get private companies to certify those standards _ so
> they can sell to U.S. supermarket chains that wouldn't buy from
> uncertified ones.
>
> But there is no public list of the chains that require sanitary
> practices, meaning there's no way to know whether the fruit and
> vegetables in any particular store is certified or not.
>
> The only U.S. government enforcement consists of 625 FDA inspectors
> who conduct spot checks of both U.S. and foreign produce, reviewing
> less than 1 percent of all imports. Beyond that, it is entirely up to
> the supermarkets and restaurants to police their produce.
>
> The best Mexican producers grow crops in fenced-off fields, irrigate
> them with fresh water and pack them in spotless plants where workers
> dress in protective gear from head to toe. But there are still plenty
> of farms with unfenced fields where wildlife can roam freely, and
> which use untreated water _ sometimes laced with sewage.
>
> Salmonella can lurk on the skin of produce or penetrate inside.
> Cooking kills it, but washing raw produce doesn't always eliminate it,
> which is why safety experts stress preventing contamination.
>
> Agricola Zaragoza is one of the uncertified plants, manager Emilio
> Garcia told the AP. He said the packing plant washes produce from both
> certified and uncertified producers, opening up the possibility for
> contamination. He refused to give details about his suppliers.
>
> The FDA suspects Mexican jalapeno and serrano chilies processed at
> Agricola Zaragoza caused the latest outbreak, though it also thinks
> tomatoes could have played a role. It concedes the ultimate source may
> never be known.
>
> Cesar Fragoso, president of Mexico's Chili Peppers Growers
> Association, said most Mexican pepper farms sell their crops to
> distributors without knowing what country they are bound for. Because
> of that, he said, few bother to get certification.
>
> In addition, lots of produce passes from distributor to distributor
> before reaching its final destination, increasing the potential for
> contamination and making tracing outbreaks much more difficult. Former
> FDA official William Hubbard said only 10 percent of outbreaks are
> ever completely resolved.
>
> "It is very common for distributors to receive products from numerous
> sources, numerous farms and in some cases multiple countries," Hubbard
> said. "That's just the way produce moves."
>
> In the latest contamination case, the U.S. government traced the
> suspect jalapenos to two farms in the state of Tamaulipas. Both
> shipped through Agricola Zaragoza in neighboring Nuevo Leon state.
> Agricola Zaragoza shipped the peppers to its warehouse in McAllen,
> Texas, where the FDA found the first contaminated jalapeno.
>
> Though usually smaller in scale, such outbreaks are relatively common
> _ at least 3,000 between 1990 and 2006 from FDA-regulated foods,
> according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a
> nutrition and food safety advocacy group. Those numbers include
> fruits, vegetables and seafood, and contamination both in the U.S. and
> abroad.
>
> The cases include a 2004 hepatitis outbreak linked to Mexican green
> onions that killed four people and sickened 650 in Pennsylvania, and a
> 2006 nationwide E. coli outbreak that infected about 300 people and
> killed three and was traced to tainted spinach from California.
>
> The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would require the FDA to
> issue regulations for ensuring safer fresh produce. In Mexico, a
> federal produce safety law was passed in 1994 but analysts say it is
> rarely enforced. Mexico's Agriculture Department did not respond to a
> request for an interview.

Aw, come on, how about a dose of multiculturalism?

mitch

http://www.wvwnews.net/ Western Voices World News

[Chief Thracian]

On Mon, 15 Sep 2008 02:44:58 -0700 (PDT), hp...@lycos.com wrote:

>On Sep 14, 10:32=A0am, Don Gabacho <jpast...@nettaxi.com> wrote:
>> Few safeguards for Mexican produce heading north

Who cares? Food will soon become unaffordable for everyone. ALL food.

Except perhaps canned pet food from China.

Badda-boom badda-bing.

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