Outbreak Traced To Pomegranates Reveals Flaws In Global Food Chain

[n2doc]

by NANCY SHUTE
July 03, 2013 2:18 PM


Disease detectives have traced the continuing outbreak of hepatitis A that has so far sickened 136 people in the U.S. to a shipment of pomegranate seeds from the Anatolian region of Turkey.

As a result, the Food and Drug Administration has ordered any new shipments from the company that shipped the suspect fruit, Goknur Foodstuffs Import Export Trading, to be seized at American ports.

That should be enough to end this outbreak. Hepatitis A is commonly spread when food workers don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. But in the current outbreak, there are slight variations in the virus among the people who have fallen ill. That suggests that the pomegranate may have become contaminated with sewage carrying the virus from more than one person.

It's unsettling to think that a few people in Turkey could cause a serious disease outbreak halfway around the world. It makes global food safety seem like a high-stakes version of the 1980s children's game Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?

All of the people who have fallen ill bought the organic frozen berry mix at Costco, a company renowned for its food safety efforts. Given that the U.S. gets 50 percent of its fresh fruit, 20 percent of its fresh vegetables and 80 percent of its seafood from other countries, are we doomed to more outbreaks like this?


more

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/07/01/197707914/outbreak-traced-to-pomegranates-reveals-flaws-in-global-food-chain

[djean111]

1. Yes. We are.

And I don't think the TPPA, for instance, helps with any sort of regulation of this stuff.
I do fully expect that some outbreaks will be blamed on "organic", when organic is not the problem. Doesn't matter if organic or not, dirty hands and conditions are the culprit.

[HiPointDem]

2. kr. and no, of course we're not 'doomed' to this. we can produce nearly all of our food supply

in the US, with sensible regulations and inspections.

it's just finance capital who thinks that's a bad idea.

[L0oniX]

3. Well the FDA was just about worthless to begin with. It's all reactive ...not proactive.

I can only imagine that industrial farms here would be happy to see the FDA financially strangled. Now they can claim that other countries get to dump their shit here without the FDA interfering ...until someone gets sick or dies. Then what are you gonna do? Drone the other countries corporate farm? Globalism ...highly over rated. Thing is that most of our overlords view globalization as inevitable because of finite resources.

[mindwalker_i]

4. I always knew those little fuckers were evil

Next up, granny smith apples will start raining holy hell on the world.