Emilio Godoy* – Tierramérica
MEXICO CITY, Jul 13 2011 (IPS) – Fatal outbreaks of food poisoning in the United States, Mexico and Europe expose the failure of regional and global initiatives to ensure that fruits and vegetables are safe and healthy.
Fruit and vegetable market in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS
Food safety encompasses how food is produced, distributed, sold and consumed, said Dolores Rojas, the advocacy and campaigns coordinator at the Mexican branch of Oxfam, an international non-governmental development organisation.
The priority has been placed on a type of production system that leads to the exhaustion of resources, aimed at making the biggest profits in the shortest time possible, Rojas told Tierramérica.
Jalapeño and serrano peppers grown on a Mexican farm were implicated in a major outbreak of salmonella poisoning in the United States in 2008, in which 1,500 people became ill and two died.
The outbreak was the subject of the research study 2008 Outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul Infections Associated with Raw Produce , conducted by a group of scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and published in March of this year by The New England Journal of Medicine.
The study is based on the results of environmental and traceback investigations and laboratory tests.
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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigated two farms in Mexico that supplied peppers to the packing facility implicated in the outbreak, and isolated the particular outbreak strain of salmonella in samples of agricultural water and serrano peppers on one of the farms that had harvested produce from mid-April to mid-June 2008, the timeframe of the outbreak.
The study concluded that an understanding of the mechanisms and ecologies that can lead to contamination of produce on farms and the institution of additional control measures from the source throughout the supply chain are critical for preventing similar outbreaks in the future.
Salmonellosis is a gastrointestinal infection caused by the salmonella bacterium, and is one of the most common food-borne illnesses in the United States and Mexico. Around 68,000 cases are recorded every year in Mexico, according to the Mexican Ministry of Health, but a great many milder cases go unreported.
Among the thousands of pathogenic (disease-causing) and harmless strains of salmonella, the serotypes most frequently found in humans are S. enteritidis, S. typhimurium and S. Heidelberg. In addition to gastrointestinal infections, some salmonella strains can also cause typhoid fever or paratyphoid fever.
The symptoms of salmonellosis are diarrhea, fever, abdominal cramps, nausea and vomiting. In extreme cases, if not treated in time, it can be fatal.
Another research study, Prevalence of Salmonella in Vegetables from Mexico , was conducted by specialists from the Department of Microbiology at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) and the Department of Biotechnology at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), both of which are public educational institutions in Mexico.
The study results were published in June 2009 in the Journal of Food Protection, a US publication. One hundred samples of each of 17 different vegetables were analysed over a period of 18 months, and salmonella was isolated from 98 samples.
There is a serious problem throughout the whole production chain, which makes it impossible to prevent contamination. It is essential to go right back to the source and control every stage in the chain, the study authors told Tierramérica.
This past May there was a major outbreak of hemolytic uremic syndrome in Germany, caused by a new strain of the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacterium, another frequent cause of food poisoning. The authorities in Germany attributed the infections to contaminated bean and alfalfa sprouts. The outbreak spread to various European countries and the United States, with more than 3,800 people falling ill, including at least 45 fatalities, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
A 2000 outbreak of salmonellosis in the United States was attributed to Mexican cantaloupes. Since 2006, various outbreaks of the disease have been attributed to foods ranging from peanut butter to alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes and jalapeño papers.
The Mexican government has not become more stringent in demanding that producers, and above all big producers, obtain certification, said Emmanuel Tovar, a consultant from the private sector certification body GLOBALG.A.P (Good Agricultural Practice).
Certification is optional and is implemented if buyers, such as distribution centers, request it. Systems should encompass the whole chain and all aspects of production, Tovar told Tierramérica.
Based in Cologne, Germany, GLOBALG.A.P sets voluntary standards for the certification of agricultural products around the world. Mexico has adopted the standards, but only for the export sector and for specific niche markets like organic products.
A Mexican certification agency, México Calidad Suprema (Supreme Quality Mexico) was founded in 1998 by national growers and packers, with federal government backing. The goal this year is to certify another 350 companies, to reach a total of 761 since the agency s founding, thus encompassing some 31,000 individual producers.
Mexico is also part of the Global Food Security Initiative (GFSI), which benchmarks existing food standards against food safety criteria, and is currently carrying out a pilot project in the country.
However, all of these initiatives continue to be isolated efforts.
For Tovar, the problem is that the possible causative agent of an illness cannot be reported if there isn t a well-designed risk map.
We believe that the food system must be seen as a whole, and respond to the food and cultural needs of the population, said Oxfam s Rojas. In terms of production, there has to be more support for and emphasis on small-scale farmers and the promotion of adequate technology. This, she said, would help make food more available in areas of greatest poverty, with priority based on supplying local markets.
In 2009, the FDA opened an office in Mexico to expand its efforts to ensure the safety of food products before they enter the US market.
The results of the study by the researchers from the IPN and UAM indicate that raw or minimally processed vegetables can be contaminated with salmonella, leading to direct infection of consumers or cross-contamination of other foodstuffs. These vegetables can represent a severe health risk for the Mexican consumer.
Agricultural controls do not fully work. Selling safe food is good business, but the industry hasn t grasped this, the study authors commented to Tierramérica.
*This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme and the World Bank.
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