Salmonella Blog - Surveillance & analysis on salmonella news & outbreaks

After the recall since March of a couple million pounds of pistachios in over 660 separate products, Setton Pistachio sent its Chief Operating Officer (COO) out to deny the California company continued to ship its seeds after discovering they were contaminated with salmonella.

In doing so, Setton’s COO Mia Cohen took exception to the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) investigative report, known as a 483 for its form number.

“We adamantly disagree with portions of the 483 and we have responded accordingly…Our company never knowingly shipped pistachios potentially contaminated with Salmonella. All pistachios, which tested positive, were either reconditioned or held in quarantine and never hit the marketplace, ” Ms. Cohen told the industry site foodnavigator-usa.com.

Since FDA took pre-emptive action with Setton , there are no known illnesses associated with the massive recall. This dispute about the facts will remain between FDA and Setton. With peanuts, salmonella contamination made over 700 people sick and was responsible for nine deaths. As part of the discovery process involving victims of the Peanut Corporation of America, third party experts extensively inspected those facilities in Texas and Georgia last month.

FDA was very critical of Setton’s action to “recondition” pistachios that tested positive for salmonella. In at least one instance, the company re-roasted pistachios that tested positive for Salmonella and then blended them together with other nuts for sale.

Setton says re-conditioning is an accepted way of killing salmonella. However, there is potential for cross contamination.

Much of Setton’s defense of its action rests on its hiring of the American Council for Food Safety and Quality (known as DFA in California ) once it had positive salmonella test results.

“They conducted hundreds of tests from October to February and could find no evidence of Salmonella in our facility,” Cohen said. “There was never a suggestion from DFA not to ship.”

It should be noted that Peanut Corporation of America also had a third-party auditor that did not question its practices.

Our report on the 483 report can be found here.

Few would have predicted that when history is written on the first term of the Obama Administration that peanuts and pistachios would play such prominent roles.   Those unlikely products, however, will be used by historians to demonstrate the bad old ways versus the new U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Maybe because the new President himself came from the streets of Chicago, he went to the front lines of the country's public health challenge to select Dr. Margaret Hamburg as FDA Commissioner and Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, as her deputy.   Dr. Hamburg, an expert in biological defense and disease control, was during the 1990s the youngest person in history to serve as New York City's health commissioner.  Dr. Sharfstein, a pediatrician, came to FDA directly from heading up the Baltimore Health Department.

It is really hard to overstate how unusual it is to have two top FDA officials from the gritty streets of big cities.   Almost all previous FDA Commissioners come from academic and research backgrounds.  You can go through each biography of past FDA Commissioners here. 

Few had any in-the-streets experience.   LBJ's last commissioner, Dr. James Goddard, came out of the Public Health Service at a time when federal doctors wore uniforms and saw patients.   And Nixon's appointee, Dr. Herbert Lay, Jr., was known for his service as an epidemiologist for our troops in Korea and Vietnam.

But that's about it.   FDA Commissioners have not been folks who got their hands dirty, knocking down the TB rate in the Big Apple as Dr. Hamburg did or taking on the dangers of over-the-counter cold and cough medicines for children under age 2 as Dr. Sharfstein did.  The typical FDA honcho creates process, not results.

So when Sharfstein took over FDA, while waiting for Hamburg to clear the Senate, it really should have come as no surprise that he opted to recall Salmonella-contaminated pistachios before anyone got sick.

The FDA has completed its inspection of Salmonella contamination in pistachios and pistachio products at Setton Pistachio of Terra Bella, Inc., Terra Bella, Calif., and presented a 483 Inspection Report to the firm.

And in news from Illinois Agriculture this morning we learn of a spinach recall due to possible Salmonella contamination.  

De  Jong Bros . Farms, Incorporated of Lansing, Illinois, has recalled its curly leaf spinach packages sold in 2.5 pound, 5 pound and 10 oz. bags because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The bags were labeled with use by dates 04/24/09 through 04/28/09.

 The recalled spinach was distributed in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota and Missouri through grocery stores and restaurant wholesalers and carried lot codes K54 or K54A. Consumers who have purchased these lot codes K54 or K54A De Jong Bros. Quality Fresh curly spinach are urged to dispose of it or return it to the place of purchase.

No illnesses have yet been reported in connection with this recall. For more, check this out.

 The CDC reports that since mid-March, 35 persons infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Saintpaul have been reported from 7 states. The number of ill persons identified in each state is as follows: Michigan (17), Minnesota (4), Ohio (3), Pennsylvania (6), South Dakota (2), Utah (1), and West Virginia (2). Cases are still being reported, and possible cases are in various stages of laboratory testing, so illnesses may be reported from other states. No deaths have been reported.  State and local authorities, CDC, and FDA have linked this outbreak to eating alfalfa sprouts. Most of those who became ill reported eating raw alfalfa sprouts. Some reported eating sprouts at restaurants; others purchased sprouts at the retail level.

The initial investigation has traced the contaminated raw alfalfa sprouts to multiple sprout growers in multiple states. This suggests a problem with the seeds used, as well as the possible failure of the sprout growers involved to appropriately and consistently follow the FDA Sprout Guidance issued in 1999.  The guidance recommends an effective seed disinfection treatment immediately before the start of sprouting (such as treating seeds in a 20,000 parts per million calcium hypochlorite solution with agitation for 15 minutes) and regularly testing the water used for every batch of sprouts for Salmonella and E coli O157:H7.

This outbreak appears to be an extension of an earlier outbreak in 2009. In February and March, an outbreak of Salmonella Saintpaul infections occurred in Nebraska, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota. This outbreak was linked to raw alfalfa sprouts produced at a single facility, and the outbreak strain was indistinguishable from that of the more recently reported cases. CDC is also currently working with public health officials in several states and FDA to investigate an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes infections linked with eating alfalfa sprouts.

So, where did the seeds come from, and why not a recall of seeds?