Food Poisoning Deaths Point Up System’s Flaws

Helen Bodnar enjoyed her Ball Park franks slathered with mustard and relish. But two months after biting into the all-American food last summer, the 74-year-old Memphis, Tenn., grandmother died of a bacterial infection her family had never heard of.

Bodnar and at least 10 others were killed in one of the most serious outbreaks of food poisoning in the U.S. in recent years. The listeria infection, traced to tainted meat from a Michigan plant owned by Sara Lee Corp., sickened more than 70 people in 14 states and caused five miscarriages, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Sara Lee launched a massive recall, but faces lawsuits from consumers.

In its wake, the outbreak has revealed new strengths and unexpected weaknesses in the federal government’s aggressive efforts to improve food safety. The system is making gains in tracing poisoning cases to their sources, but still falters in preventing outbreaks.

Extensive Testing Not Being Done

For example, although government policy requires ready-to-eat meats such as hot dogs to be totally free of listeria, the Department of Agriculture currently conducts only limited random testing for the bacteria.

“Where we don’t have mandatory microbial testing as part of the new system, it’s not as effective,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, a food safety expert with the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “We’re still behind the times in terms of how strong these programs are.”

Agriculture Department officials agree there is a shortcoming.

“One of the real concerns is that the standard protocol for controlling listeria clearly is not adequate, because product is getting into the marketplace that is contaminated,” said Maggie Glavin, a senior manager with the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. “We are working . . . to determine where there is a breakdown and why current best practices are not good enough.”

The outbreak and other recalls are sure to result in greater government and industry scrutiny of ready-to-eat meats. Though only the Sara Lee case was tied to illnesses, there were a dozen listeria-related recalls of such products last year. Only last week, there were two more listeria-related recalls involving ready-to-eat meats. A Chicago company recalled 2,600 pounds of meat distributed to stores in 11 states after listeria was detected in a Vietnamese specialty product, and a Georgia firm recalled 4,500 pounds of franks and smoked sausages.

Extensive testing for listeria, like current monitoring of raw beef for E. coli and fresh chicken for salmonella, may ultimately be required. USDA is also considering asking Congress for broader authority to order recalls.

While more rare than salmonella and E. coli, listeria infection is more likely to lead to hospitalization or death. An incubation period of as long as two months makes it hard to find the source.

Indeed, it took four months to trace food-poisoning listeria cases around the country to the Michigan meat plant. Yet, were it not for new detection networks linking CDC and state health departments, it’s unlikely the puzzle would have been solved, experts say.

Still, contaminated hot dogs found their way to market despite new science-based food processing precautions, which have succeeded in reducing bacterial contamination in other foods, such as fresh chicken.

Since 1993, the Clinton administration and Congress have more than doubled the amount of federal spending, to $900 million annually, for more frequent safety inspections and vigorous tracking of food-borne illnesses. Clinton’s current budget plan calls for a 12% increase in food safety spending by the Department of Agriculture, CDC and the Food and Drug Administration.

No listeria cases connected to the outbreak have been confirmed in California, but lawyers involved in a class-action suit against Sara Lee say they have reports of six possible infections.

Health officials have not seen this big an outbreak of listeria since 1985, when 48 people died and 142 were sickened in Southern California from eating contaminated Mexican-style cheese. More inspections and better controls, including regular bacterial testing at processing plants, have restored consumer confidence in such cheese.

Plant Repairs May Be to Blame

For John Bodnar, 76, a retired mechanic, the loss of his wife of 53 years came soon after the couple had moved to Memphis to be near their children. Helen Bodnar died Oct. 19, leaving four children and 11 grandchildren.

Like many Americans, Helen Bodnar was fond of hot dogs. “Helen and I both liked the Ball Park brand,” John Bodnar said.

Bodnar, who has filed a wrongful death suit, said he and his wife had no idea that one of their favorite foods could be so harmful. “I had never heard the word ‘listeria’ before,” he said.

In processed foods, listeria is usually killed by pasteurization at the plant. That listeria got into hot dogs reflects a breakdown in new precautions that government and industry have deployed in meat, poultry and seafood plants, officials acknowledge.

That safety system, known as Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, uses scientific methods to analyze and identify potential sources of contamination. For example, an HACCP program may require employees who work with raw meats to have no contact with cooked products. The system is used at the Sara Lee plant.

Underscoring the difficulties involved in eliminating invisible microbes from food, the cause of contamination at the Sara Lee plant has yet to be identified. Federal officials suspect construction dust from air-conditioning repairs.

A chronology of events following Bodnar’s death demonstrates how improved detection worked. Only a few years ago, the outbreak could have gone undetected and continued indefinitely. Instead, medical detectives quickly mobilized.

John Bodnar recalls that he and his wife ate hot dogs in August. The initial sign of trouble came Oct. 3, when his wife collapsed in the kitchen.

She was rushed to the hospital, where she died two weeks later of meningitis caused by the infection. Health officials in Tennessee identified listeria and reported the case to the CDC.

Most adults can shake off listeria, but if infection spreads to the nervous system, the disease can be fatal. One in five patients typically die. John Bodnar was unaffected.

Last fall, the CDC began receiving reports of an increase in listeria cases in several states.

“Listeria outbreaks have been uncommon, so it highlighted a concern,” said Robert Tauxe, CDC’s food-illness chief. New York health authorities believed that seven cases in that state were linked. They urged the CDC to conduct a DNA analysis of samples taken from patients.

That test was the first break. The New York patients were infected with the same rare form of listeria. DNA tests on samples from other states soon yielded more matches, including Helen Bodnar, according to her husband’s lawyer.

Health officials then turned to old-fashioned methods, collecting detailed food histories from patients and families. Many had eaten hot dogs.

Then in December, a patient provided an open package of hot dogs from the refrigerator. On the package was a code number identifying the Sara Lee plant. DNA testing was immediately ordered.

Federal officials converged on the plant Dec. 15, USDA records show. Government inspectors in white coats attracted immediate attention as they monitored production lines and collected samples of unopened products. The company stopped shipping hot dogs and deli meats Dec. 17, Sara Lee spokeswoman Theresa Herlevsen said.

“We stopped shipping product even though there was no definitive link,” Herlevsen said.

On Dec. 19, CDC matched the DNA fingerprint of listeria in the open package of hot dogs to the outbreak strain.