Food safety is personal for Yuma growers
‘Every head of lettuce, every crown of broccoli, we watch closely’
Keeping food safe is a personal mission for Yuma’s farmers.
“No farmer wants to see anyone get sick or become ill from the food they eat,” said Yuma farmer John Boelts. “The same food we grow in our fields, we take to our family for dinner. That’s how personal this is. When we can gather information to change our practice and make it safer, we do that right away, and I know that the farmers in Salinas feel the same way”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday that the outbreak of E.coli in romaine lettuce from Salinas, Calif., has resulted in 102 cases of illness and 58 hospitalizations across 23 states including three in Arizona, all of which has prompted a recall of Salinas’ romaine.
At a Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association luncheon on Tuesday,
Frank Yiannas, the deputy commissioner of food policy and response for the Food and Drug Administration, said, “People won’t differentiate your romaine and my romaine. When an outbreak happens, people stop buying all the romaine from all the stores.”
This means that the news of a food borne issue or outbreak is especially concerning for farmers here in the lettuce capital of the world.
“Farmers in Yuma obviously have their concerns,” said Boelts. “We’re concerned any time there’s a food-borne illness outbreak even though we put our all into making sure that every serving that comes from our farms is safe. Every head of lettuce, every crown of broccoli, we watch closely.”
Boelts said that he and other
farmers are confident their lettuce is safe and good to go because of the precautions they take. Boelts said he and other farmers are keeping a close eye on the information that’s coming from the CDC, California’s Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement and the FDA, who is currently investigating the outbreak.
“We’re cautious. We hang on every word that comes out of an FDA investigation to help us understand what’s happening,” Boelts said. “These investigations take time though. The FDA will get to the source of the problem as quickly as they can, but sometimes that means after a harvest.”
The same strain of E.coli found in the current Salinas outbreak is the same involved in the Yuma outbreak from 2018 that led to 5 deaths, 96 hospitalizations and 210 cases of illness across 36 states, according to the CDC.
That outbreak, which ended in June 2018, was traced by the FDA back to the water in Yuma’s canals.
In the wake of that outbreak, Yuma produce growers adopted new guidelines and procedures based on the information from the FDA, including additional water quality testing, increased attention to weather conditions and longer distances from contained animal feeding operations such as feedlots and ranches.
In the current outbreak in Salinas, investigators know it originated in that region, but haven’t narrowed down a more specific source or common grower, distributor, supplier or brand of romaine lettuce.
The CDC’s food safety alert advises consumers to throw away all types of romaine lettuce grown in Salinas including romaine in salad wraps, packages of precut lettuce and salad mixes that contain romaine, baby romaine, spring mix, and Caesar salad.
Any romaine lettuce with the label “grown in Salinas” should be avoided as should any romaine lettuce without a label, the alert warns. However, hydroponica or greenhousegrown romaine labeled as “indoor grown” from any region appears to be safe.
With all this going on in the background as the lettuce season is underway here in Yuma, Boelts wants to make sure that consumers know that their lettuce is grown with care and special attention, noting food safety isn’t a matter that farmers take lightly.
“We’re cautious. We hang on every word that comes out of an FDA investigation to help us understand what’s happening. These investigations take time though. The FDA will get to the source of the problem as quickly as they can, but sometimes that means after a harvest.”