Lessons from the Salmonella Outbreak
We’ve been hearing a lot about the gram negative bacteria Salmonella this summer, a strain of which to date has sickened over 1,000 people across 42 states. First we thought it was contaminating tomatoes, and the industry took a multi-million dollar hit. Lately the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shifted its focus to cilantro, jalapenos, serrano and other peppers used in salsa. I think there are several lessons we can learn from this mystery:
- Though Salmonella doesn’t sicken produce, it does sicken humans. Unfortunately, it is developing an ability in some species to deeply infect and spread among produce. The current strain, Salmonella Saint Paul, although it is not more virulent than other common strains - causing nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramping, it is more easily spread.
- There is an inadequate tracing or regulating of produce entering the U.S. The USDA regulates farming, and the FDA regulates food, but too often food safety falls in the gap between these two agencies.
- Salmonella and other bacteria that are prevalent in cattle and chickens, can easily be spread by irrigation or by food handlers to our produce. We can partially protect ourselves from salmonella in our meats by cooking them thoroughly, but we eat many of our fruits and vegetables raw. This raises the stakes for more effectively tracking our produce.
- Washing produce is not effective at completely removing pathogenic bacteria like salmonella. Chemicals which are useful in the food handling process such as chlorine dioxide (kills salmonella more than 95 percent of the time) are not commonly used. Genetic splicing techniques and irradiation are other ways to make produce more resistant to bacteria.
Despite a continuing concern in the media over the salmonella outbreak, it is also important to keep in mind this summer that your chances of getting sick from eating salsa or peppers remains extremely low. Unfortunately, mystery and lack of answers from our federal agencies breed fear and cause us all to personalize the risk. It is hard to eat a delicious fruit or vegetables right after seeing it practically criminalized in the news without thinking you could be infected next. Many of my patients have told me their concern that the last case of diarrhea or nausea they got was really the terrorist Salmonella Saint Paul in disguise.
Statistically, chances are slim of getting salmonella poisoning. Our food remains largely safe. 76 million Americans get sick from food every year, but this number is much better than any other time in history. We should be able to raise the need to better regulate the growing and handling and importing of our food while at the same time continuing to enjoy eating it.
Marc Siegel MD is an internist and associate professor of medicine at the NYU School of Medicine. He is a Fox News Medical Contributor and writes a health column for LA Times, where he examines TV and movies for medical accuracy. Dr. Siegel is the author of False Alarm: the Truth About the Epidemic of Fear (Wiley 2005) and Bird Flu: Everything You Need to Know About the Next Pandemic (Wiley 2006). Read more at www.doctorsiegel.com
Tags: cilantro, jalapenos, peppers, salmonella, salsa, Serrano, tomatoes
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Which strains of Salmonella have been found to “deeply infect and spread among produce”?
Despite the current concerns of tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro, Steve Sundlof, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, has stated “at this we have not found any samples of tomatoes or peppers positive for Salmonella Saintpaul”*.
In this outbreak we have a shortage of knowledge and so people are replacing that knowledge with best guesses. If there’s anything we need to learn from this, it’s that we need a people who can stand hearing the words “We don’t know.”, and officials and media who have the responsibility to say those words when they’re the truth.
*http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_66773.html
Low dose food irradiation, gamma (cold pasteurization), is the only effective method for elimination of internalized bacteria resulting from harvest practices such as tomato placement in cold water.
Studied for over 70 years and found safe, effective, and superior to current methods by the US Agricultural Research Service which considers irradiation the “best practice” in food processing. In Australia, it is the kill-step that produce in the US lacks. There they say, “If it’s Nuked it’s safe.” Irradiation is the most studied food process in history which the FDA classifies as an additive, which does not leave a residue.
Irradiation is advocated by every scientific organization in the US including the AMA, CDC,
and the WHO. Congressional testimony described delays in the current irradiation petition before the FDA for more than 10 years as criminal, tragic, and the needless loss of life.
Years ago, it was suggested that irradiation would solve bacterial or viral infestations of foods. If this is the case, why don’t we irradiate foods today?
I have gotten food poisoning about 4-5 times in my life. It sucks, but as long as you can manage the fever it usually passes in about a day. When ever I feel like I am starting to get sick, I HOPE it is just food poisoning so I don’t have to worry about having a flu which can last a week or more.
I am not trying to be insensitive to people suffering, this is just my perspective on this issue, it smells to me like it’s more a publicity stunt to show that the FDA is doing “something”. It seems like a complete waste of money, and very damaging to the tomato companies. The tomato companies should get together and sue the FDA for reparations from the fear campaign that was waged. Why didn’t the FDA just quietly go investigate? Why the press releases? This was a very unprofessional method for doing the investigation, and probably skewed the results due to the tomato farmers being “extra ready” for the inspections. When the health department inspects a restaurant, they DEFINITELY don’t let the restaurant know ahead of time.
It seems that the more we move into the 21st century the more stupid some people think we are,
salmonella grows and lives in intestinal track of animals and people. Tomatoes, peppers, cilantro have not evolved to grow these organs.
And also when and if someone eats a “salsa” made out of those vegetables, it is very likelly they are doing it, eating it with some kind of meat. Meat being of an animal that does have an intestinal track.
What about taking a look at what these people ate the tomatoes with?
If the gov’t. keeps cutting funding for fda inapectors we will see more and more outbreaks
If it’s a bacteria and not a virus, why do you call it a “strain”
Will a bacteria change over time? becoming deadlier? or are some scientists trying to drive this
“news” of a 1000 people sick out of salmonella from a Population of 304,608,149
And is it not true that daily people get salmonella more likelly from badly cooked chicken meat than tomatoes?
I am one of the 11 people in Wisconsin that was diagnosed with salmonella – 4 days of extreme illness. I am still recovering – this can stay in one’s system 5-7 days. The health department called and went over “their state form” of the foods & restaurants of foods I had consumed for the entire week prior to illness. She informed me that all the information is sent to the state data bank and they try to link any similarities. Since I am on a documented diet, I knew everything that I had eaten and the ingredients – EXCEPT for a chicken salad I had in Illinois (it did not contain tomatoes or peppers – cilantro?? not sure.) Since no one else reported any illness from eating at this restaurant, they dismissed my claim that it could have been something in the salad. While doing some research on the subject, I discovered that any server or food preparer – even someone who pours water, can pass on salmonella if they have had the food poisioning. With the current economy and all areas struggling – I doubt very highly that a server would report that they had food poisioning (OR, they may have had the “flu” for day & were never diagnosed) – they would continue to work…. So, this whole tracking of what people ate – since i did not eat anything on the list; my assumption is – I was inflicted with this via – chicken not prepared properly, or restaurant personnel – Not any of the items on the “list”.
TV news frequently shows hundreds of acres of tomato fields, etc, in panoramic views, when presenting this issue. I have never seen a chicken or cow anywhere near those fields. Also never seen is an outhouse or a “porto-potty”. Is it not possible that some migrant workers in these fields are Salmonella carriers and might be a source of the contamination?
No one wants to mention this possibility on TV because it is “politically incorrect” and would immediately increase the demand for border-fencing, etc., but I hope it is being quietly investigated by appropriate health authorities, along with contamination by animal waste. Do you know if this is happening?
Thank you.
The source of salmenella are from the hog and cattle lots upstream. Lets crack down on their dirty practices and leave the poor veggies alone. Irradiation kills all the bacteria, but it also kills all the nutritional value of the vegetable. If we are going to be doing that, then lets just replace ripe tomatoes with bottles of ketchup.