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May 12, 2010
· Tainted lettuce traced to Yuma farm
· Calif. wages war on grapevine moth
· More shoppers surfing for food deals
· New potato varieties look promising
· Special Report: Can biotech save Africa?
Tainted lettuce traced to Yuma
(AP via thecalifornian.com) – A Yuma, Ariz., lettuce grower is the common link — and maybe the only link — between an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 19 people in three states and a voluntary recall of romaine by Spreckels-based Andrew Smith Co.
The
No illnesses or contamination have been reported in romaine sourced by Andrew Smith. But the company recalled 1,000 cartons Friday nevertheless.
"Andrew Smith said if there's a bag that came from that ranch that's positive, let's look at what product we've sold from that ranch that may still be out in commerce," company spokeswoman Amy Philpott said Tuesday.
Philpott would not say if Andrew Smith Co. sold the lettuce recalled last week to Freshway Foods, though she did confirm that Freshway Foods is one of the company's clients.
On Monday, the FDA announced that a bag of shredded romaine
from Freshway Foods tested positive last week for E.
coli strain 0145 in
"As to whether the lettuce in the [
Bulk sales involved
Andrew Smith buys bulk romaine from growers and sells it to processors and distributors who bag and ship it. The lettuce involved in the outbreak went to food service providers; many of those sickened were college students. The recall does not affect bagged lettuce in the grocery store.
The Andrew Smith recall applies to lettuce sold to Vaughn
Foods in
Officials at the federal Centers for Disease Control say they are looking at an additional 10 probable cases of E. coli poisoning from tainted lettuce.
The FDA said it is investigating the
Health officials said most of the college-age victims fell
ill in April and have already recovered. Middle and high school students in
No new cases have been reported in the middle and high schools since April 25.
Strain rarely detected
The most common strain of E. coli found in
Dr. Patricia Griffin at the CDC said only about 5 percent of
labs do a special test that identifies E. coli 0145. This is the first time
that strain has been identified as part of a food-borne outbreak in the
"Because of problems identifying these infections, we've probably missed outbreaks," she added.
Calif.
(AP
via lodinews.com) – As if the recession and the drought weren't enough of a
problem in the nation's No. 1 agricultural region. Now growers in the
The European grapevine moth, unknown to the
Although the Napa-Sonoma wine region grows the state's most
expensive grapes, the San Joaquin Valley — and Fresno County in particular — is
the nation's largest producer of the fruit, including table grapes, juice
grapes and raisins, said Les Wright, deputy agricultural commissioner for
Fresno County. Fully 80 percent of the raisins consumed all over the world come
from
Since the discovery of the moths over the last week, local, state and federal agriculture officials have mounted an aggressive campaign to stop the invader from multiplying. More than 80 square miles around the area where the moths were found are under quarantine, meaning growers face heavy regulations on how to handle their crops and equipment. Chemical treatment is slated to begin next week.
An ounce of prevention could save their farms, though not without hassles and costs.
"We didn't need this," said Manuel Cunha, Jr., president of the Nissei Farmers League, a farmers' advocacy group. "And once this quarantine gets bigger, you've got real problems.
"The farmers work all year for this crop and now you can't harvest the crop. Or you can harvest, but the buyers don't want it. How do they pay their loans, how do they pay the bank — all of these things become a huge burden on the farmers," he said.
Even the limited quarantine means extra layers of work, in an already labor-intensive business.
A quarantine means trapping truckloads of the fruit, washing tractors, mechanical harvesters and fruit bins before transport and submitting to inspections of fields, packing houses and processing plants. Even the seeds and skins left after grapes are crushed have to be disposed of at a proper facility.
And spraying comes at the growers' cost. The U.S. Dept. of
Agriculture this week committed $1 million to the effort, on top of $1.7
million already allocated to fight the moth in
"It's a huge problem even at the level that we've found it," Wright said. "We're still working out the details of the boundaries of the quarantine zone and what encompasses the procedure of moving the farm products out of that region. We don't have all the answers yet. And we can't even begin to estimate the costs until we have more answers."
The good news for the valley's grape growers is that with
over 5,000 traps set across the county, officials have yet to find any more
grapevine moths. In
"We have a chance of stopping this before it becomes
another
The European grapevine moth, about a quarter of an inch in
size, is native to Europe, but is also found in southern Asia, North Africa,
South America and the Middle East. It was first discovered in the
The moth has since traveled to neighboring
How it made its way to
The European grapevine moth, while favoring grapes, also will eat its way through a long list of tree fruits, including peaches, plums, nectarines, pomegranates, kiwi and persimmons. It is especially dangerous to grapes because it feeds on grapes in both the moth and the larvae stage — the larva feed on grape flowers and developing fruit. Second and third generations of the moth cause the most damage — directly by feeding on mature grape berries and, indirectly, by predisposing the crop to gray mold, a fungal infection.
The moths lay eggs in April and start their first round of feeding at the flowering stage.
In
Barry Bedwell, president of the
California Grape and Tree Fruit League, said growers are cautiously optimistic
that the early detection of the moth in
"Our confidence level is high that we'll be able to catch this on the onset," Bedwell said. He didn't even want to contemplate what could happen if the moth becomes a major pest. Even if it didn't ruin crops and bankrupt farms, he said, the moth could devastate grape country by freezing the export trade.
More shoppers surfing for food deals
(Wire Services)
The survey found that one-third (33 percent) of respondents subscribed to receive emails/recipes/coupons directly from food manufacturers/companies, a six percentage point increase from Deloitte's 2008 Consumer Food Safety Survey.
"Today's consumers are using the Internet to not just
find nutritional and safety information about the foods they eat, but to find
the best value for their dollar," said Pat Conroy, Deloitte's vice
chairman and consumer products practice leader in the
Almost a quarter (23 percent) of respondents said they have visited a food company's Web site to find out product information and 23 percent also made a food purchase as a result of something they read online. In line with the 2008 results, 36 percent of consumers said they have visited a food company's Web site to get recipes, compared with 35 percent in 2008.
Mobile devices are beginning to play a pivotal role for shoppers as they make decisions on what to buy, especially when it comes to price. Seven percent of people who took the survey have used their mobile/smart phone while in a store for a variety of reasons including to: compare prices (53 percent), get/redeem coupons/discounts (44 percent) and obtain nutritional information (28 percent).
When it comes to bargain hunting, men are more aggressive and, according to survey respondents, use their mobile devices more than women, to compare prices (59 percent to 49 percent) and obtain/redeem coupons/discounts (53 percent to 38 percent). Women, on the other hand, are more focused on using their mobile devices for receiving further nutritional information (36 percent to 18 percent).
Store Brands Playing a Substantial Role
Store brands remain a preference over name brands with 52 percent of Americans surveyed frequently or always purchasing store brands when shopping for packaged or bottled food items.
Among respondents who purchase store brands, three-quarters (75 percent) currently purchase these brands because they are less expensive than national brand food products. More than half (55 percent) surveyed currently purchase store brands because the quality is believed to be comparable to national brand food products, an increase of 14 percentage points since 2008, while 6 percent say the quality is better (taste, ingredients, organic, etc.) than national brand food products. When broken out by age, 72 percent of consumers between 61-74 years old, 57 percent of those 45-60 years old, and 49 percent among both 30-44 years old and 8 – 29 years old purchased store brands because of their comparability to nationally-branded products.
"In today's economy, consumers believe that they can get quality products without paying higher prices, whether that's from store brands or national brands," noted Conroy. "Consumers realize their shopping choices have expanded giving them the ability to be more selective about their purchases based on a variety of criteria, including but not limited to, quality, quantity, taste, and of course, value. The question companies are asking now is, 'Will this more critical eye towards purchasing be the new norm or just a passing result of the economic downturn?'"
For a copy of Deloitte's 2010 Consumer Food Safety Survey, please visit www.deloitte.com/us/foodsafety.
About the Survey
The survey was commissioned by Deloitte and conducted online by an independent research company between March 22 and March 24, 2010. The survey polled a nationally representative sample of 1,102 consumers. The survey has a margin of error of +/- three percentage points.
About Deloitte
As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte LLP and Deloitte Services LP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.
New potato varieties look promising
(USDA-ARS) – Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists
in
Seventy percent of all potatoes in the
Jeff Suttle, research leader at
the ARS Sugarbeet and Potato Research Unit in
Their evaluations of the new varieties over the past year have led to the development of two named cultivars, "Dakota Crisp" and "Dakota Diamond," which fare well even after nine months of storage.
Wound-healing and sprout control are both major issues for
potato storage managers. Potatoes are sometimes damaged during harvest and must
heal in order to prevent infection by other pathogens. The internal processes
that control wound-healing are being determined in studies by ARS chemist Ed Lulai in
When potatoes are harvested, they're dormant and don't sprout. During storage, dormancy ends and sprout growth commences. Sprouting results in numerous biochemical changes, which are detrimental to the nutritional and processing qualities of potatoes. Postharvest sprouting is typically controlled during storage with chemicals that inhibit the process.
The long-term goal of Suttle's program is to find less costly, nonchemical solutions to the problem by identifying the genetic cause for these early-sprouting tubers. The researchers have identified internal mechanisms that signal sprouts to grow, and they are currently isolating the genes responsible for these signals.
Special Report: Can biotech save Africa ?
(DesMoinesRegister.com) By Philip Basher
Introduction:
High-tech seeds have transformed agriculture in
Monsanto and Pioneer Hi-Bred believe biotechnology will
change the world, too. The companies, which have major operations in central
Critics dismiss the projects as publicity stunts. But supporters say that if the projects are successful, the seeds could grow into a new green revolution. They say biotech crops could boost food production, which the United Nations estimates must increase 70 percent by 2050 as the Earth’s population grows.
Can biotechnology save Africa? Photo gallery
The series:
About this project
Des Moines Register reporter Philip Brasher traveled to
This project was directed by the
It was Brasher’s fifth trip to
End Transmission