Preventing E. coli Outbreaks Is Easier Than You Think
Food safety and technology expert Dr. Christine Bruhn explains the surprising reason that we don’t use a widely-accepted technology to prevent food-borne illnesses such as the recent E. coli outbreak.
Monica Reinagel, MS, LD/N, CNS
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Preventing E. coli Outbreaks Is Easier Than You Think
If you live anywhere in North America, you’re aware that we recently had an outbreak of food-borne illnesses linked to romaine lettuce. On the day before the American Thanksgivig holiday, the CDC advised grocery stores and restaurants to stop selling or serving romaine lettuce and warned consumers to throw away any romaine that they may have had on hand.
A week later, the CDC announced that they had tracked the problem to lettuce grown in the Central Coast region of California and that romaine harvested elsewhere was safe to eat. Although that seems like it would narrow things down quite a bit, the reality is that a huge percentage of the lettuce we eat in North America is grown in central California.
It may seem like these recalls are happening more and more frequently these days, which might give you the impression that our food system is breaking down somehow. But part of this is just that our systems for detecting and reporting outbreaks have gotten more sophisticated.
Growers, packers, and distributors also work very hard to prevent this from happening. Not only do they not want to be responsible for anyone getting sick, but these recalls are financially devastating for them. Revenues literally drop to zero overnight. It may take several weeks for the CDC to sound the all clear, and in that time, millions upon millions of pounds of lettuce will be destroyed. A grower can see an entire month’s income—or more—go up in smoke. And it can take years for sales of an affected commodity to rebound.
As a result, enormous resources have been invested and in many ways our food system is cleaner and safer than it’s ever been. However, food production has also become increasingly centralized. So a local problem can have national consequences—as we see with these outbreaks.
The irony of all this is that we have at our disposal a technology that could prevent these outbreaks. In 2008, following an E. coli outbreak affecting raw spinach, the USDA and FDA approved irradiation as a safe and effective way to kill harmful pathogens on raw spinach. Ten years and countless outbreaks later, however, irradiation is still not very widely used.
See also: Is Irradiated Food Safe?
In this week’s podcast, I spoke with Dr. Christine Bruhn of the University of California Davis’s Food Science and Technology division. Dr. Bruhn has studied consumer attitudes toward food safety and technology and served as Director for the Center for Consumer Research and as an advisor to a number of nutrition and food technology organizations.
Dr. Bruhn explained how and where irradiation could be used to eliminate harmful bacteria, and how this affects the taste, texture, and nutritional value of foods. She then shared the shocking reason that this technology is not being more widely used to protect us from food-borne illness: an outdated Congressional ruling that defines irradiation as a food additive (rather than a process). This mischaracterization means that the technology can only be used on a few individually approved crops. Not only does this limit its usefulness, but it also makes adopting this potentially life-saving technology prohibitively expensive for growers.
Consumers are also leery of irradiation. But Dr. Bruhn has found that, while a high percentage of consumers say at first they would not want irradiated foods, as soon as they are given more information about what irradiation is and does, acceptance soars.
Many of the concerns consumers have about irradiation are simply based on a lack of understanding about what this technology is and does. More legitimate concerns that may have existed decades ago have been put to rest by decades of subsequent research.
Although she is in favor of transparent labeling that would allow consumers to choose for themselves, Dr. Bruhn argues that the time has long since come for this technology to be more widely used, saving both lives and livelihoods.
Could the next outbreak be prevented by saner regulations regarding irradiation? Perhaps. But we may need to speak up and let our lawmakers and lettuce growers know that we’re tired of preventable outbreaks and ready to join the rest of the world in embracing this solution.
Please click the audio player to hear our entire conversation.
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About the Author
Monica Reinagel is a board-certified licensed nutritionist, author, and the creator of one of iTunes’ most highly ranked health and fitness podcasts. Her advice is regularly featured on the TODAY show, Dr. Oz, NPR, and in the nation’s leading newspapers, magazines, and websites. Do you have a nutrition question? Call the Nutrition Diva listener line at 443-961-6206. Your question could be featured on the show.