Consumers Union's recently tested bagged leafy greens and found bacteria in many samples, in some cases at rather high levels.  A question that quickly comes to mind is whether organic salad greens, loose greens, or leafy greens from farmers' markets, are cleaner or carry less risk of carrying pathogens like salmonella or E. coli O157:H7.

Organic first.  Alex Avery of the Center for Global Food Issues, a project of the Hudson Institute, has argued that organic greens actually will be dirtier because they are fertilized with manure.  Organic farmers point out that they must use composted manure, which kills pathogens. In fact, Consumers Union's tests found no statistically significant difference between organic and conventional bagged leafy greens in terms of bacteria levels. This means that one can't assume that packaged organic greens will be cleaner.

What about buying lettuce by the head, rather than as bagged salad?  Won't that at least avoid the possibility that dirtier greens will contaminate cleaner ones as they pass through the washes that are used in the packaging plants?  At least one scientific study suggests that cross-contamination does occur, although on the other hand the chlorine in the washes is designed to knock down what microbiologists call the "bacteria load." 

But contamination can occur at other points in the process as well--disease-causing bacteria can be carried by irrigation water or by farm workers--which can affect heads just as easily as bagged lettuce.  The E. coli 0157:H7 that appeared in spinach in 2006 and that resulted in three deaths and hundreds of illnesses may have come from the feces of a wild pig. USDA tested 3828 samples of loose lettuce in 2005-6, and 3117 samples of bagged lettuce in 2007-8 and the results for Salmonella were about the same: one percent positive for the bagged lettuce, and just under that, .7 percent for the loose lettuce. Thus there is no clear evidence that head lettuce is less likely to harbor bacteria than packaged salad greens.

Consumers Union issued a report [PDF] today urging the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to set safety standards for greens. FDA food safety legislation pending in the Senate--S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and a similar bill passed last summer by the House of Representatives--would require the FDA to create both performance and on-farm standards to insure the safety of all leafy greens.

Bacteria are equal opportunity infectors.  Because there are so many other advantages to local and organically grown produce, however, including less pesticide use and a generally smaller carbon footprint, Consumers Union, joins sustainable agriculture groups in supporting the Stabenow bill, S. 2758,  which provides grants for small farmers and processors to receive appropriate food safety training, education, technical assistance, and extension services. Large operations have much easier access to these services.  Hopefully the Senate will pass both S. 2758, and S. 510 very soon.  

It's hard for me to imagine a time when I was carefree about what I ate.

It all changed in December 2008, when I suddenly became ill with what I thought was a stomach virus. It took weeks of illness before doctors finally discovered that I had salmonella, contracted from eating Kellogg's Austin Peanut Butter Crackers, which I had bought in my office cafeteria.

It was then that I realized I had become one of the tens of millions of Americans who is affected by food-borne illness each year - made sick by basic food staples, from peanut butter to spinach and cookie dough.

And more than a year after the outbreak from contaminated peanut products, Congress has yet to pass food safety legislation.

Like many Americans who are affected by food-borne illness, I was shocked to learn that our food safety system is based, in large part, on laws enacted over 100 years ago, and that the Food and Drug Administration - which regulates 80 percent of the U.S. food supply - inspects domestic food-processing facilities on average only once every 10 years.

In the area of inspections, as well as other components of our food safety system, I learned firsthand that the laws and regulations are woefully inadequate to effectively oversee what has become a complex global food supply.

Unfortunately, most of the tracking in my case was left up to me.

At the outset, Kellogg's told me it was not linked to the outbreak. I was told that there was no recall on the crackers and that they had received no other complaints.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, peanut butter and peanut paste contaminated with Salmonella typhimurium resulted in nine deaths and over 700 illnesses in 46 states, with many more cases probably never reported.

Thousands of items - including cookies, crackers, candy and ice cream - that contained Peanut Corporation of America peanut products were eventually recalled.

As it turned out, I was one of the "lucky ones" - I didn't die.

After using all of my sick and vacation time and struggling with growing household and medical bills, I finally started to feel better.

Today, I am much more careful about what I eat, what I feed my family and where I get my food. My husband and I are also pushing for national reform in the hopes of saving others from the horrors of food-borne illness.

Since my illness, we have become food safety advocates, traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with Sen. Susan Collins and with Sen. Olympia Snowe's staff, and to lobby Congress to overhaul the laws.

Fortunately, Congress is listening. Last summer, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an important piece of bipartisan legislation, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749).

Now it's up to the Senate to pass similar legislation.

Recently, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions unanimously approved the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510). This bill is strongly supported by senators on both sides of the aisle - something that is not often seen in Washington these days, and it signals that the time has come to make food safety a priority and enact sweeping changes to the nation's food oversight system.

Historic reform to protect Americans is in sight, and I ask Sens. Snowe and Collins to urge Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to bring the bill to the floor for a vote as soon as the Senate is back in session in late January.

The longer it takes Congress to pass this comprehensive legislation, the more consumer confidence in our food supply will erode.

I never expected that a sickness contracted from something as simple as a pack of crackers would leave me ill, unproductive, and emotionally and financially strapped for months on end.

Safe food should be available to everyone. The thought of another person going through what I did is unbearable.

We need better regulations, because without them the outbreaks of contaminated food are sure to continue, causing millions more Americans to suffer the devastating and sometimes fatal consequences that come from an unsafe food supply.

-- Special to the Press Herald

Major fast-food chains and some premium grocery stores impose standards for their beef that are more stringent than those set by the Agricultural Marketing Service for beef supplied to the National School Lunch Program.

McDonald's, Burger King and Costco test ground beef they buy five to 10 times more often than the USDA tests beef made for schools during a typical production day.

It's tough, stringy and far less appealing than the more tender meat of broiler chickens. But that didn't stop the government from using the National School Lunch Program as an outlet for egg producers struggling to find a market for 100 million egg-laying hens culled each year.

From 2001 though the first half of 2009, USA TODAY found, the government spent more than $145 million on spent-hen meat for schools -- a total of more than 77 million pounds served in chicken patties and salads. Since 2007, 13.6 million pounds were purchased.

the Agency (USDA) released a list of over hundred Safeway stores in Arizona (pdf) that received the recalled meat.

The recalled products were produced on September 23, 2009 and bear establishment number "EST. 31913" on the cases they were shipped in. 

According to USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the ground beef was repackaged and sold under several different retail brand names, so consumers must check with their retail stores to ensure their ground beef is not part of the recall.

Scientists are fairly sure that vaccines like the one Mr. Timmerman gave his cattle will not, on their own, wipe out the dangerous strain of E. coli known as O157:H7. But if they prove effective, they could significantly reduce the amount of harmful bacteria that cattle carry into slaughterhouses, which means that safeguards already in place there would have a greater chance of eliminating the remaining germs from the beef supply.

While studies have shown varying degrees of effectiveness, many researchers believe E. coli vaccines can reduce the number of animals carrying the bacteria by 65 to 75 percent. That may be enough to prevent the surge of E. coli that typically occurs each summer, when the germ thrives and reports of illness increase.