Tip on Berries Preceded Scare, U.S. Official Says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture received reports earlier this year that a San Diego firm was illegally purchasing foreign-grown strawberries for use in school lunches but failed to act before the recent hepatitis outbreak, a department official told lawmakers Thursday.

Kenneth Clayton, deputy administrator of agricultural marketing services, said USDA officials had been informed that Andrew & Williamson Co., which processed and packed the strawberries that exposed several thousand Los Angeles schoolchildren and adults to the hepatitis A virus, was buying foreign produce in violation of school lunch program requirements.

Department officials planned to investigate the reports, which surfaced in January and February, but had not done so when the contaminated strawberries reached school districts in California and five other states last month, Clayton told members of the early childhood, youth and families subcommittee of the House Committee on Education and the Work Force.

“I certainly would agree that in hindsight, which is 20-20, I wish we would have followed up more quickly,” he said, adding that a hold should have been placed on the frozen berries until officials could inspect them.

One reason the reports were not acted upon, he said, is that competing packing plants sometimes spread rumors about one another. But he said he did not know if that was the case in this instance. Several subcommittee members expressed concern that the USDA had not acted on the reports. “When you hear rumors, it seems there should be some urgency,” said Rep. Dale E. Kildee (D-Mich.). “Especially since this food is intended for our children.”

USDA officials said that stepped-up investigation of such reports is one of several reforms the department is undertaking in response to the hepatitis A outbreak.

More than 150 students in Michigan were infected with hepatitis A after eating the contaminated strawberries in early March. Strawberries from the same lot were shipped to Los Angeles and served to about 9,000 students and adults in mid-March. When Los Angeles school officials learned of the Michigan outbreak, inoculation clinics were immediately set up and no known cases of hepatitis have resulted.

Before the hepatitis outbreak in Michigan, the USDA relied only on processors’ signatures to ensure that their food was from domestic sources. Occasionally, agency officials inspected packing plants on a random basis. Now, the USDA will demand more information from the processors, including the packing date, lot number and country of origin of all foods for the school lunch program. Clayton compared this reform to “laying a road map” so the USDA can trace food to its origin.

Because the hepatitis A virus is thought to have originated in Mexico, the USDA and Food and Drug Administration are working with Mexican farmers to assist them in making their farms more sanitary, according to Fred Shank, an FDA official.

On a recent trip to Mexico, officials found unsanitary conditions, including too few restrooms for farm workers and no hand-washing facilities, Shank said. Federal and state officials are planning a meeting with Mexican farmers in Tijuana to assist them in correcting those problems.

All of those testifying Thursday stressed the need for heightened inspections in all areas of food growing, processing and packing. No federal officials had inspected Andrew & Williamson Co. since 1988. The plant is now closed.

“I don’t think we’re comfortable with the amount of inspection going on now. It’s quite low,” Shank said.