Cucumbers are bad...

[DFB]

Being its a rainy day I'm just catching up my growing and farming news reports over the past week since the Holiday.

Outbreaks in over half the country at least 27 states...

Salmonella Outbreak Causes Massive US Cucumber Recall : News : Food World News




According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Mexico-grown cucumbers were distributed in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

285 people sickened so far, 53 three people have been hospitalized. One person in California died.

Most of the people sickened in this outbreak , 54 percent, are children. In Arizona, the percentage is even higher- 75 percent of the cases are children age 17 or younger.

By state, the 285 cases reported so far are as follows: Alaska (8), Arizona (60), Arkansas (6), California (51), Colorado (14), Idaho (8), Illinois (5), Kansas (1), Louisiana (3), Minnesota (12), Missouri (7), Montana (11), Nebraska (2), Nevada (7), New Mexico (15), New York (4), North Dakota (1), Ohio (2), Oklahoma (5), Oregon (3), South Carolina (6), Texas (9), Utah (30), Virginia (1), Washington (9), Wisconsin (2), and Wyoming (3).


Whole foods, Safeway, Costco, Walmart, Sam's Clubs Winco, Food for Less, were just some of the places that sold them along with being served in some chain restaurants.


Salmonella outbreak linked to cucumbers; 66 cases in Arizona - WAFB 9 News Baton Rouge, Louisiana News, Weather, Sports

I'm glad I don't frequent any of those places for food and very rarely purchase produce not locally sourced.


Yup the lawsuits are rolling in now

Lawsuit On Cucumber Sept 2015 Recall - Bing News


We have to do recall traceability were I work. We just had a recent GAP inspection and audit and this time around required to perform a mock recall.

 

[Jstpssng]

Isn't that why they say to wash your produce?

I don't buy cucumbers that far from the source anyways... I have yet to see a cuke in the produce department which isn't shriveled up on the stem end.

 

[DFB]

Interesting since its a bacteria...maybe its in the water they use hey!

Probably will see more and more of these things happening with certain major corporate players looking to dominate the American food and grocery market with the cheapest priced products that can be sourced through global free trade.

https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2015/salmonella-outbreak-how-are-cucumbers-contaminated/

 

[fishheadbob]

Another reason to "Think global, buy local."

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Another reason to "Think global, buy local."

Not a bad idea to grow your own. Cucumbers, as a rule, are easy to grow. We grow our own every year, and although this has been a bad year for cucumbers, we have had plenty for our own use and some to give away.

 

[TCJatko]

Isn't that why they say to wash your produce?

I don't buy cucumbers that far from the source anyways... I have yet to see a cuke in the produce department which isn't shriveled up on the stem end.

I always wash anything I eat, even if it came from the garden out back. I sometimes see people sampling stuff like grapes from the shelves in the store; it makes me shudder.

 

[DFB]

Wow problems are still going on...guess you just cant turn away and say just another day hey!


(UPDATED CONTENT Sept. 22) A third death is now linked to the salmonella poona outbreak associated with fresh cucumbers imported by Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce Inc.

Health officials in Pima County, Ariz., confirmed an older female who had serious underlying health conditions died while being treated for a salmonella infection in a hospital.

This circumstance is a saddening reminder that illnesses that often don't cause a high level of harm to most people can have a devastating effect on those in our community that are most medically vulnerable, Pima County Health Department director Francisco Garcia said in a Sept. 18 news release.

With 95 cases confirmed so far, Arizona has the-second-highest number of outbreak illnesses behind California, which has 120 cases, according to the most recent update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Sept. 22.


From Sept. 15 to Sept. Sept. 21, the nationwide case count grew from 418 to 558, according to the CDC. The outbreak now stretches across 33 states. More than half of the sick people are children under the age of 18. Two other deaths, one each in Texas and California, have been confirmed as part of the outbreak.

Andrew & Williamson recalled all whole, fresh cucumbers it sold from Aug. 1 through Sept. 3 that had come from its grower partner Rancho Don Juanito in Baja California, Mexico.


UPDATED: Third death confirmed in cucumber salmonella outbreak | The Packer

The Food and Drug Administration issued an import alert on cucumbers from Rancho Don Juanito requiring that they be held at the border without inspection.

Laboratory tests detected the salmonella poona outbreak strain on Andrew & Williamsonç—´ Limited Edition brand bulk-shipped cucumbers collected from multiple retail outlets in several states, as well as on cucumbers collected from an Andrew & Williamson facility in San Diego, according to the CDC.




I find this so interesting with my front position for the business I work for. I meet hundreds of people a week most I have never seen before and have conversations with many...if topics like food safety and quality come up and virtually no one has a clue to this massive recall. Even my boss hadn't heard about it until I said something, seems if your not in the industry or part of the locally affected seems no one knows anything thru most media outlets.

Caveat Emptor


Caveat emptor /ˌk誚ɛɑːt ˈɛmptɔr/ is Latin for "Let the buyer beware" The phrase caveat emptor arises from the fact that buyers typically have less information about the good or service they are purchasing, while the seller has more information. The quality of this situation is known as 'information asymmetry'. Defects in the good or service may be hidden from the buyer, and only known to the seller.

A common way that information asymmetry between seller and buyer has been addressed is through a legally-binding warranty, such as a guarantee of satisfaction. But without such a safeguard in place the ancient rule applies, and the buyer should beware.

 

[Soundguy]

I always wash anything I eat, even if it came from the garden out back. I sometimes see people sampling stuff like grapes from the shelves in the store; it makes me shudder.

ditto... I grow a few types of pepers.. I wash all of them. even the chili's i'm going to dry for my birds.

 

[DFB]

Salmonella contamination on produce cannot effectively be 100% washed away.

Obviously home gardeners can manage cleanliness much more effectively than large packing and distribution centers dealing in commodity supply of food products. Heavy doses of chlorine definitely help


There are common themes when fresh produce sickens, either from salmonella -- bacteria that live in the intestinal tracts of humans and animals -- or other microbes: water sources, worker hygiene, and wildlife or domestic animals near fields are frequent culprits because they involve points where safety systems easily can break down.

Washing fresh produce under running water is a common sense consumer defense.

The following is from a tomato issue several years ago...

"We know you can wash off some salmonella," said Virginia Tech food microbiologist Robert Williams, who accompanied FDA scientists to Virginia farms as part of the tomato initiative. But, "nobody's ever shown it washes off all salmonella."

Water is an automatic suspect. Was clean water used to irrigate, mix pesticides sprayed on crops, wash down harvest and processing equipment, and wash field workers' hands? Then in packinghouses, tomatoes often go straight into a dump tank with flumes of chlorinated water for a first wash. To guard against salmonella washed into the water in turn being sucked into the tomatoes, producers often keep wash water 10 degrees warmer than the incoming crop, said food safety scientist Keith Schneider of the University of Florida.

Beyond packinghouses, the industry points to cases in which suppliers were shipped unwashed, warm tomatoes and dunked them in ice water to firm them for further processing.

Read more here: Salmonella can wash in on water | The Modesto Bee