Supermarkets, Restaurants Requiring Farm Inspections
A string of food poisonings linked to fruits and vegetables is pushing supermarkets and restaurants to require inspections of its suppliers’ farms and packinghouses.
Contaminated produce is the culprit in an estimated 10% of all cases of food-borne illness, yet the U.S. government has no mandatory rules--only voluntary guidelines--for safe and sanitary growing and handling practices.
Produce industry representatives, big retailers such as Kroger, Wal-Mart and A&P;, and restaurant groups have agreed that buyers should begin requiring suppliers to undergo an annual inspection using guidelines set out by the Food and Drug Administration.
These guidelines advise growers to treat manure to kill bacteria before it’s used as fertilizer, keep contaminated irrigation and septic systems away from produce and train workers to wash their hands properly and make sure they have access to toilets.
Safeway and Albertson’s, the country’s second- and third-largest supermarket chains, were the first to begin requiring third-party audits, beginning in 1999.
Consumer advocates say the audits are no substitute for regulation, and auditors say the inspections don’t guarantee clean produce. They don’t even require growers to fix problems, said Robert Stovicek, president of Santa Maria-based PrimusLabs.com, an international auditor.
‘All you’re doing as an auditor is identifying weaknesses,” Stovicek said. “It’s not a statement of performance.”
Implementing the audits also has been troublesome.
Albertson’s officials gave suppliers until last spring to comply, but many were unable to meet that deadline, spokeswoman Jeannette Duwe said. She doesn’t know when all of the company’s suppliers will be in full compliance.
Safeway is slowly phasing in the program crop by crop. And so far, only suppliers of higher-risk crops such as lettuce, berries and sprouts are submitting to these audits.
“We do plan to expand it to most of the items that are consumed raw,” said Debra Lambert, Safeway spokeswoman.
Over the last decade, 82 outbreaks of food-borne illness have been linked to tainted raspberries, sprouts, lettuce and melon, according to data from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. In the last month, salmonella-contaminated cantaloupe has sickened people in 14 states and killed two people in California.
Many in the produce industry are hoping that if supermarket buyers step in and demand these audits, growers won’t have to face more strict federal inspections.
The FDA’s guidelines were adopted as the universal standard for safety to take the confusion out of inspection for growers and assure a uniform benchmark for quality, produce officials say.
“Many people were asking for [safety audits] already,” said Dr. Donna Garren, director of scientific and technical affairs for the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Assn. “We just wanted some consistency in what they were asking for.”
