13.sep.08
The Associated Press
Mark Walsh and Olga R. Rodriguez
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hccaaOQsaUlBEKLLR0Ax-GSH8-RwD935S1MG4
http://barfblog.foodsafety.ksu.edu/2008/09/articles/food-safety-communication/buying-fresh-produce-is-an-act-of-faith-heres-why/index.html
ALLENDE, Mexico -- 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.
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.
Kathy Means, a vice president for the U.S. Produce Marketing Associations, said food safety is in the hands of the food industry, with most major produce buyers requiring both U.S. and foreign food producers to have third-party audit programs. However, Means said, not all buyers follow the same rules.
"It's not government-regulated, so it's up to the company to require it," she said.
At Alfonso Alvarez's fenced-off 15-acre farm in Jalisco state, tomatoes are grown in greenhouses and irrigated with water from a deep well. Workers wear hair nets, gloves and aprons, and signs require them to wash their hands after going to the bathroom.
He and other Mexican farmers with sanitary farms want the United States to set up a certification program that covers both growers and packing plants.
"Those who grow in open fields will ruin it for those who produce in greenhouses," Alvarez said, "and that's not fair."