The Salinas Valley grows most of the leafy greens consumed across the country each summer. But it has not been named as a source of the lettuce currently implicated in a an outbreak of cyclosporiasis
After a 2006 E. coli outbreak from spinach, California growers decided to ramp up their food safety protocols. Now, a state program requires documentation of crops as they’re moved.
Richard Smith recently retired as a UC Cooperative Extension vegetable advisor.
He says farmers and processors do everything they can to protect food safety, but it’s never a guarantee.
“We're dealing with a biological system, so things happen,” he said. “But, I think that the industry is very sophisticated in their understanding of why these things happen and how to avoid them.”
He adds that sanitation during growing, harvesting and processing is paramount.
He says harvested heads of lettuce first go into bins that get labeled in the field. Then, a processor washes, shreds and bags the lettuce before packages are labeled again.
“That's kind of a routine thing that the companies do,” he said, “is be able to do what they call 'traceback' to fields.”
But, in a statement, the International Fresh Produce Association—an industry group —said lettuce from multiple fields can be mixed at that stage so “there's no way to separate out which grower's product is in any given bag.”
Federal officials have identified iceberg lettuce from Mexico, eaten at Taco Bell restaurants in several states, as a source of the current cyclospora outbreak.
