Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Taco Bell restaurants occurred during this “wait and see” period likely reinforced
some consumers' beliefs that contamination problems involving produce had not yet
been resolved.
The result of two serious, widely publicized
E. coli
contamination incidents occur-
ring in rapid succession likely heightened consumer awareness and amplifi ed con-
sumer concerns about the safety of eating fresh produce. These were quickly followed
by a series of other high-profi le recalls and incidents involving food safety and food-
borne illnesses. These included the recall of peanut butter contaminated with
Salmonella
(U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2007a) and several recalls of ground
beef contaminated with
E. coli
O157:H7 (U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety
and Inspection Service 2007b), including what would become one of the largest
recalls of ground beef in history. These were followed by the recall of
Salmonella
-
contaminated vegetable snacks (U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2007e), canned
hot dog chili contaminated with botulinum toxin (U.S. Food and Drug Administration
2007g), canned cut green beans contaminated with botulinum toxin (U.S. Food and
Drug Administration 2007h), and chicken and turkey pot pies contaminated with
Salmonella
(U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service
2007c ).
These recalls of domestically produced foods were interspersed with a series of
well-publicized problems and concerns with imported food and other products from
China. These included the deaths of cats and dogs as the result of eating melamine-
contaminated pet food (U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2007c), the discovery that
toothpaste imported from China had been contaminated by diethylene glycol (U.S.
Food and Drug Administration 2007d), and the detention of farm-raised seafood con-
taminated by chemical residues (U.S. Food and Drug Administration 2007f).
Consequently, the recall of
E. coli
O157:H7-contaminated spinach in the autumn
of 2006 was the fi rst in a series of food safety problems that received national atten-
tion. It served as a “signal event,” focusing attention initially on potential contamina-
tion problems in the produce industry. Subsequent recalls raised and reinforced broader
questions about the safety of the American food system.
As a result, the contamination of spinach in Fall 2006 had several measurable
impacts. It caused the deaths of 3 people and made more than 200 others ill. It signifi -
cantly reduced the market for, and consumption of, fresh spinach, resulting in eco-
nomic losses for the produce and retail industries. It also had an impact not just on
how Americans perceived the wholesomeness of eating raw spinach, but on how they
viewed the safety of the entire food supply. What is remarkable, is that these conse-
quences were the result of contamination originating from a single fi eld of spinach.
Acknowledgment
The research described herein is based on Rutgers Food Policy Institute (FPI) working
paper, RR-0107-013 by C. L. Cuite, S. C. Condry, M. L. Nucci, and W. K. Hallman
(2007), which was supported by a grant provided to Rutgers FPI by the Cooperative
State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) of the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the National Integrated Food Safety
Initiative (NIFSI) grant #2005-51110-02335 “Food Biosecurity: Modeling the Health,
