Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
The science behind salad safety
Nutritionists recommend eating a cup of leafy green vegetables every day, but recent reports about the safety of fresh greens may have some wondering whether it could do more harm than good. Consumers Union, the publishers of Consumer Reports magazine, analyzed store-bought prewashed and packaged leafy greens and published the results in the March 2010 issue.
Currently, the FDA has no set guidelines for the presence of bacteria in leafy greens. Consumers Report said several industry consultants suggest that an unacceptable level would be 10,000 or more colony forming units per gram. The Consumers Report study found that 39 percent of their 208 samples purchased last summer in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York exceeded this level for total coliform, and 23 percent for Enterococcus."Although these 'indicator' bacteria generally do not make healthy people sick, the tests show not enough is being done to assure the safety or cleanliness of leafy greens," said Dr. Michael Hansen, senior scientist at Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports.
UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist Trevor Suslow wrote a lengthy and detailed reaction to the study for Farm Safety News. He said it is unfair to consumers to raise a specter of fear well beyond what is supported by available science and our everyday shared experiences."What I rely on for my personal confidence in regularly consuming lettuces, spring mix, and spinach salads is that there are billions and billions of servings of these items consumed every year in the U.S. alone and the predominant experience we have is of safe consumption," Suslow wrote.
Suslow offered these common sense guidelines for purchasing and eating leafy greens:
- Check the display temperature by hand to confirm the display is cool and the bags are very cool to the touch.
- Look at and heed the "Best if Consumed By" date.
- Take notice of the display case arrangement. Bags should be vertical in a row, not laid one on top of one another in stacks. Clamshell containers can displayed in various stacking or slanted row patterns that allow generous space for airflow.
- Prewashed greens do not need to be rewashed at home. In fact, studies have found that home washing doesn't provide any benefit and could make the vegetables susceptible to cross-contamination in the kitchen.
Packaged leafy greens.
UC scientist reacts to consumer group's salad report
UC Davis Cooperative Extension specialist Trevor Suslow wrote an opinion piece for Food Safety News saying a recent Consumers Union study - which questioned the safety of prewashed salad greens - has caused a flurry of concern and confusion.
An article in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports magazine said its study of packaged leafy greens found nearly 40 percent of samples contained bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination, according to a news release distributed on PR Newswire.Suslow wrote that he thinks it is "grossly unfair" to raise fears beyond what is supported by science and everyday shared experiences with salad greens.
"What I rely on for my personal confidence in regularly consuming lettuces, spring mix, and spinach salads is that there are billions and billions of servings of these items consumed every year in the U.S. alone and the predominant experience we have is of safe consumption," Suslow wrote.
The CR news release said FDA should increase the specificity of its guidance and regulations for packaged leafy greens. In the meantime, the writers suggested consumers buy packages as long as possible before their use-by date and wash the greens at home, even if the packages say "prewashed" or "triplewashed."
Suslow agrees customers should look for use-by dates on packaged leafy greens. He goes further to suggest consumers note that packages in grocery stores are refrigerated vertical in a row, not laid one on top of the other in stacks.
Suslow said he checks the temperature of the greens' display case with his hand and confirms that the bags are very cool to the touch. (Perhaps one day there will be a cell phone ap for that, Suslow suggests.)
But he doesn't recommend consumers wash packaged salads at home.
"I do not support or believe that re-washing packaged salads should be a recommendation for the home consumer," Suslow wrote. "A large and diverse panel of experts published a comprehensive article in 2007 detailing the scientific evidence for the lack of benefit and the greater risk of cross-contamination in the home."
Packaged leafy greens.
Writer retracts criticism of Small Farm Program move
Harry Cline, a longtime ag reporter who writes a weekly column for Western Farm Press, devoted space this week to counter a commentary he published last fall lamenting the ANR decision to close the Small Farm Program. In the column that ran yesterday, Cline noted that the program is not dead; rather its administrative services have been merged into another office.
Cline wrote that UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley and others pointed out the mistake. Dooley told Cline that the goal is to limit administrative costs and provide more support for farm advisors and specialists.
"ANR has taken some disproportionate cuts since the mid 1990s, and Dooley stopped that bleeding," Cline wrote. "Not one farm advisor or specialist position has been eliminated under his watch."
However, the article also said ANR and Cooperative Extension won't return to their old staffing levels because the ag industry has changed in the past 25 years. Today, business professionals - like pest control advisers and private dairy nutritionists - do some of the work that used to be part of farm advisors' jobs.
“The university is being asked to work on bigger issues such as water and water quality, and this is changing the roles of advisors and specialists," Dooley was quoted.
Dan Dooley, center, with Beth Grafton-Cardwell, left, and Barbara Allen Diaz.
Spring-like weekend brings attention to bees
California's pre-spring mid-February weather is pushing open orchard blossoms and raising worries about dwindling bee numbers.
The Madera Tribune yesterday reported that an abrupt disappearance of worker bees within the last two weeks, and in some instances overnight, is spreading alarm throughout the California agriculture industry.
“We are going to have a big shortage of bees,” the story quoted Madera beekeeper Lyle Johnson. “It’s worse than four years ago. Growers don’t know it yet, but a few are starting to ask.”
Johnson told reporter Ramona Frances farmers are scrambling for bees.
"Almond prices are going up but if you don’t have the bees, there will be big trouble," he said.
A story in the Oakland Tribune by Melissa Murphy also reported that bee health problems are continuing.
"They can't shake it for some reason," the article quoted UC Davis entomologist Eric Mussen. "It all depends on who you talk to. Too many stressors all add up."
The mysterious decline in bee populations is called Colony Collapse Disorder. Factors that scientists suspect cause CCD include pests, pesticides, malnutrition and stress from transport.
The Oroville Mercury-Register reported Northern California orchardists will have their needs met for pollination, but that other areas in the state may not get the bees they need. However, the bees that farmers are getting are more expensive and not as healthy as last year. One Northern California beekeeper negotiated contracts at $150 a hive, but said farmers are now paying $180-$200 a hive.UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Joe Connell told Mercury register reporter Heather Hacking that almond trees in the area will be in bloom Feb. 20.
/span>
Bee on almond blossom by Kathy Keatley Garvey.
Ag must adjust as population grows and world warms
With the world facing serious challenges - like global warming, diminishing fresh water supplies and population growth - there is a critical need for people to get beyond biases against the use of agricultural biotechnology, according to a group of prestigious scientists that includes UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald.
This admonition was part of a perspective piece published in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science. The authors also said there is an increasing need for development of farming systems that use saline water and integrate nutrient flows.
In the Science article, the researchers noted that crop reductions related to global climate change are already apparent. For example, a 2003 heat wave in Europe, which caused a 3.5-degree rise in the average summer temperature, killed 30,000 to 50,000 people and resulted in a 20 to 36 percent decrease in the yields of grains and fruit that summer.
"That dramatic drop in yield is just a foreshadowing of the challenges that lie ahead for agriculture during the 21st century, as temperatures rise and another 3 billion people are added to the global population," Ronald was quoted in a UC Davis news release about the journal article.Ronald believes global warming will change the pattern of plant diseases and cause intense, periodic flooding.
"The good news is that we have the ability, through conventional breeding and genetic engineering, to generate new varieties of our existing food crops that can better adapt to these environmental changes," Ronald was quoted.
Pamela Ronald