Public forum explains E. coli facts and myths

With the E. coli outbreak making national news, local agriculture experts held a forum on Friday to stop the rumors and explain the safety measures taken to keep our produce safe.

The agriculture industry in Yuma C ounty is very diligent about food safety practices. They work alongside the FDA and CDC to determine potential sources of contamination. Experts said consumers shouldn’t be afraid of eating fresh produce.

Farmers, residents, and agriculture leaders filled two conference rooms voicing their concerns while also learning and taking notes about E. coli.

Channah Rock, a water specialist and associate professor at the University of Arizona, said before a product is planted in the field and all the way through harvesting, there are various steps growers take to ensure that safe produce reaches your table.

“So training is a huge component of making sure your produce is safe and so we’re training folks at the high levels of director[s] of food safety but also at the worker level. So the folks that are actually touching and handling your produce and harvesting in the field,” said Rock.

But, how does a nationwide outbreak happen after all these rigorous procedures? Experts said because we grow lettuce out in the open, there are a number of ways it can potentially become contaminated.

“Whether that’s animal intrusion or poor water quality or you know basically someone doing something wrong, you know at the wrong time,” said Rock.

At this point, the Arizona Department of Agriculture said there is no romaine lettuce coming out of Yuma. The lettuce harvested from March 5th through 16th has exceeded its 21-day shelf life and has either been consumed or thrown away.

“So it basically goes from the farm to the cooler. Once it leaves the cooler, it’s either going to go to its final destination. If it’s a whole head type of situation or it needs to be processed in some way, then it goes to a processing plant. Then it goes to the distribution plant and then off to its final stop,” said Paula Rivadeneira, a food safety, and wildlife specialist.

This means the produce could have caught the bacteria anywhere in between.

“So when they identified the farm here in Y uma, where they said they grew the lettuce, they also said that they did not know where the contamination came from. The problem is people hear a name of a farm and they go ‘oh it must have been them’ but it wasn’t and they have not confirmed any contamination from that farm,” said Rivadeneira.