International Specialty Supply
Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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International Specialty Supply Supplying Sprout Companies Throughout the World
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820 East 20th Street Cookeville, TN 38501 USA 931 526 1106
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Canadians Slow to Wake
Up to the Dangers of High-Risk Foods The
public is beginning to realize that sprouts are a high risk food for food
poisoning, but the U.S. seems to be much better at learning the lessons than
Canada. An academic report by Sylvanus Thompson and Dr. Doug Powell of the University of Guelph reveals that U.S. government officials took the initiative to organize public consultations with the sprouts industry and followed up with a set of production guidelines and public warnings. Nothing like that happened in Canada. In fact, judging by the press reports that Thompson and Powell gathered, some senior officials at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada think this is no big deal. They have limited their warnings to specific lots of sprouts from particular companies and have indicated that normal, healthy Canadians face no particular risk and that it's only those with a compromised immune system who need to worry. To further muddy the waters, they have suggested that sprouts are no riskier than a number of other foods, without listing any others, and that cooking will kill the harmful bacteria. This response comes after more than 6,000 Japanese school children fell ill in 1996 after eating contaminated white radish sprouts and after scores of outbreaks, each involving more than 100 consumers, have happened in the U.S. and Canada. In the old days, the industry thought contamination could be avoided by carefully following proper production, handling, packaging and marketing procedures. Now it's clear that contaminated seeds are a big problem, and no matter how careful growers are about their facilities, there remains a high risk of contamination. Researchers have found only one way to completely eliminate harmful bacteria on seeds: soak them for 30 minutes in a solution with 2000 parts per million of calcium hypochlorite, then hit them with a dose of gamma irradiation. That's the only way to get at bacteria hiding in the tiny cracks in alfalfa seeds, or between the cotyledons (halves) of mung bean seeds. Trouble is, the irradiation dosage is higher than the U.S. and Canadian governments have approved for fruits and vegetables. And another trouble is the reaction from some Canadian growers who say they won't even try irradiated seed because they think consumers will object. Yet Thompson and Powell report that "even if only a few organisms survive (seed treatment), they can grow to high levels during sprouting and contaminate the entire batch. Therefore, disinfection alone cannot be relied upon to ensure the safety of sprouts." The warm, moist growing conditions that are best for sprouts are also ideal for multiplying harmful bacteria, including the same strain of E. coli that felled the people in Walkerton. I take two disturbing lessons from the paper Thompson and Powell have produced. One is that the Americans are doing a better job of addressing this food safety issue than our Canadian Food Inspection Agency and Health Canada. The other is that many of our Canadian sprouts growers do not accept the fact that their products can and do make some of their customers very, very sick. |