Food Safety Reconfirmation: You're Still On Your Own
(Factory Food • )
Grandmas make cookies, grandchildren eat them, and my family is no exception. Plus, like most people, I have an interest in providing my family with wholesome food that doesn’t make them vomit. As such, I grow my own fruit and vegetables, and take care to process and cook food in a clean, safe manner.
Thus also, I follow food recall/poisoning cases with more than a passing interest, especially if the contaminated food is known to have made its way to Texas and consists of things that grandma might include in her cookies. Such as Nestle’s Toll House cookie dough, found recently to have been contaminated with three different types of E. coli bacteria, including the dangerous E. coli O157:H7 which, we learn today, apparently is killing a woman in Las Vegas.
As of one month ago, 80 people in 31 states, including the Nevada woman, were known to have eaten Nestle’s Toll House cookie dough and become infected with E. coli O157:H7. Three of them are from Texas.
After finding out the government had traced E. coli contamination to its cookie dough, Nestle issued a recall of the dough on June 19, manufactured at its Danville, Va., food plant. Less than a month later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded its investigation into the case, saying it had done its very best, but could not find out how in the dickens E. coli (often associated with beef, since the bacteria are commonly found in the stomachs of cattle and other ruminants) could have gotten into the cookie dough.
Nestle said it cleaned up everything in the plant really good, bought fresh ingredients from different vendors, and is churning out Toll House cookie dough again. For my part, I am urging my family and friends to not buy it, ever again.
The FDA may not have been able to figure out how Nestle products became contaminated, but I got a pretty good idea after reading government inspection reports for Nestle’s Danville plant. I went into detail here on July 10, but will just give you the executive summary today:
→ Nestle’s Danville plant has operated for years in a manner inviting numerous potential sources of food contamination. The plant was cited more than once when it was found that tools and other items were being soaked in the same sink where cookie-dough-making employees were supposed to wash their hands, just for starters.
→ Nestle makes meat sauce at the same plant in which it makes the cookie dough. The meat comes from animals known to commonly carry E. coli in their intestinal tract. We are provided no evidence from the government that meat at the Nestle plant was contaminated. We also are provided no evidence that it was not.
→ Nestle stores some of its food ingredients in silos outside the Danville plant. Nothing in government inspection reports indicates the silos and their contents were ever inspected.
→ Inspectors found ice, dripping water or some kind of colorless liquid, insulation material, wood particles, dust and insects on the floor or elsewhere in or near production areas of the plant.
→ Nestle has refused to allow state or federal inspectors to take photos of their findings, review the company’s complaint logs or see its pest control records. Apparently FDA and state inspectors have complied for years with this refusal.
My personal opinion: Nestle cannot be trusted to provide food, at least from this plant, that is safe from contamination. Which is why I ask my family and friends not to buy food products that come from the Nestle Danvill plant, and to think hard about other food products they might be inclined to buy from this company.
Meanwhile, for anyone else still laboring under the misconception that our government is here to make sure the food we buy at the grocery stores is safe for us to eat, I direct your attention to Melon Acres Cantaloupes, distributed from Lakeland, Fla., recalled from stores in Indiana, Ohio and Michigan last Thursday because tests showed at least some of the melons were contaminated with Salmonella.
I bring this recall to your attention, even if you live down here in Texas, to make a point. The company recalled the melons on Aug. 27. But they were shipped to grocery stores Aug. 13 and 14 – two weeks before the recall notice. When people buy melons, they take them home and either eat them immediately or leave them no more than a few days in the refridgerator, because melons don’t keep very long. Which means that people who bought Salmonella-contaminated Melon Acres melons probably already ate them before the recall was even announced.
But here’s the punch line: The U.S. Department of Agriculture tested and found a Salmonella-contaminated Melon Acres melon on Aug. 11 – two days before the first batch of melons was shipped out. It appears that not only did the USDA not immediately notify the company about the findings, it didn’t notify the company at all. Instead, it told the FDA. We are not privy to information telling us exactly how long it took USDA to communicate its findings to FDA. But we do know that the FDA didn’t notify Melon Acres about the contaminated melons until Aug. 21 – more than a week after the melons had been shipped.
This is why it is better for you and your family to either grow and raise your own food or buy it from people you know, who grow or raise it using methods you trust. The lesson is simple: You are your own food safety inspector. So keep your eyes open and pay attention.
→ B.Dunn, Sep 01, 2009, 04 57 am
