Tag Archives: Egg

Third-party food-safety audits fall under intense scrutiny

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I spent the morning hanging out with a couple of visiting food safety types from Jordan. What was striking was how much we agreed that arguments about government turf, the inadequacy of audits, and the failure of food safety messages with consumers and other humans was a global phenomenon.

Beth Weise writes in tomorrow’s USA Today that if you’ve never heard of a third-party food-safety audit, you’re not alone. Few Americans know or care what they are. To the companies that produce much of our food, they’re an important tool to make sure it’s safe and wholesome — but critics say the certificates the auditors issue often aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on.

Recent foodborne illness outbreaks have raised questions in Congress and elsewhere about the effectiveness of these audits and the impartialness of the process.

Auditors are the eyes and ears of a company buying food from a producer. A frozen-pizza maker hires an auditor to make sure the company it buys tomato sauce from has a clean, safe and well-run plant. But many problems — including dead chickens, rats, manure and salmonella — can fall through the cracks of their visits.

Last year, the Peanut Corp. of America, whose products sickened over 600 and may have killed as many as nine, got a "superior" rating at its Texas plant even as it was churning out peanut paste tainted with salmonella.

And last week Congress showed that one of Wright County Egg’s egg-packing plants got a "superior" rating from the same company on June 8, just two months before Wright became part of the largest known egg recall in the United States.

The company, AIB International (of Manhattan, Kansas, sigh), lists five standards on its website that inspectors expect to see in a "facility that maintains a food-safe processing environment." They are: ensuring that raw materials are safely stored and handled; equipment, buildings and grounds are properly maintained; cleaning and sanitizing is adequate; pests monitored and managed; and staffers are working together to deliver a safe final product.

When FDA inspectors actually went into Wright County’s henhouses at its Galt, Iowa, plant, they found vermin, filthy dead chickens and manure oozing out of doorways. More than 1,600 people were sickened in a salmonella enteritidis outbreak linked to the farm, and over 550 million eggs were recalled due to contamination at this plant and at nearby Hillandale Farms, where lesser problems were found.

"Superior" clearly doesn’t mean much, says Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "How many dead mice do you have to find in your food before you get an ‘Excellent’ rating?"

Third-party food audits, like restaurant inspection, are a snapshot in time. Given the international sourcing of ingredients, audits are a requirement, but so is internal food safety intelligence to make sense of audits that are useful and audits that are chicken poop.

The third-party food safety audit scheme that processors and retailers insisted upon is no better than a financial Ponzi scheme. The vast number of facilities and suppliers means audits are required, but people have been replaced by paper.

Audits, inspections, training and systems are no substitute for developing a strong food safety culture, farm-to-fork, and marketing food safety directly to consumers rather than the local/natural/organic hucksterism is a way to further reinforce the food safety culture.

After the salmonella-in-peanut paste crap, Costco, a retail store, which previously limited AIB’s inspections to its bakery vendors, has now instructed suppliers to not use AIB at all.

“The American Institute of Baking is bakery experts,” said R. Craig Wilson, the top safety official at Costco. “But you stick them in a peanut butter plant or in a beef plant, they are stuffed.”

Or as Mansour Samadpour of Seattle said at the time,

“The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education.”

I asked weeks ago, who were the buyers of DeCoster eggs who used AIB audits to justify putting salmonella on grocery store shelves? Any retailers want to step forward?

And market food safety at retail so consumers can choose the poop they wish to purchase.
 

Food safety auditors can suck: Salmonella-in-egg producer got A-OK from same auditor that OKed salmonella in peanut paste

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The same third-party auditor that approved salmonella-tainted peanut paste that killed nine and sickened 600 also gave DeCoster egg operations a “superior” rating and “recognition of achievement” in June 2010, just as thousands of Americans began barfing from salmonella in DeCoster eggs.

Beyond the theatre of yesterday’s House hearing about the salmonella-in-eggs outbreak that has sickened well over 1,600 was the revelation that DeCoster’s Iowa egg operations had been audited by the American Institute of Baking based in Manhattan (Kansas).

The N.Y. Times reports that documents released by the committee showed that Wright County Egg achieved a “superior” rating and “recognition of achievement” from AIB International, a private inspection company based in Manhattan, Kan., after a June inspection of its processing facility. That came just as the company was causing thousands of illnesses from contaminated eggs.

In 2008, AIB gave a “superior” rating to a Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, Ga., that was later found to be riddled with salmonella that caused a nationwide outbreak and the largest food recall in American history. A spokesman for AIB could not be reached.

Elizabeth Weise of USA Today reported today that Wright County Egg, one of the Iowa farms at the center of this summer’s recall of 550 million eggs, earned "superior" ratings for its facilities from a third-party auditor the past three years.

But the auditor was the same one that gave a superior rating to the Peanut Corp. of America, whose shipments were linked to a salmonella outbreak that sickened hundreds a few years ago.

AIB International, of Manhattan, Kan., audited Wright’s egg-packing plant twice in 2008, four times in 2009 and at least once in 2010, and every time found it to be "superior," Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., said during the hearing. … Calls to AIB were not returned Wednesday.

AIB International also gave the Peanut Corp. of America’s Plainview, Texas, plant a "superior" rating. An outbreak of salmonella linked to some peanut products shipped from that plant and another PCA plant in 2007 and 2008 sickened as many as 600 people and may have contributed to nine deaths.

This is beyond embarrassing. It’s criminal.

A Kansas State student wrote in 2009 that after a March 6, 2009 article in the N.Y. Times sorta shattered the myth of third-party food safety audits, he couldn’t get anyone at AIB to talk.

Since the release of the Times article, AIB now requires a minimum of two days or longer to complete an inspection at a food processing facility. AIB has also announced it will change the name of its Good Manufacturing Practices inspection certificates from “Certificate of Achievement” to “Recognition of Achievement.”

Is that like Homer Simpson winning the First Annual Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence?

Apparently, the answer is yes, given the salmonella-in-eggs poopfest.

Third-party food audits, like restaurant inspection, are a snapshot in time. Given the international sourcing of ingredients, audits are a requirement, but so is internal food safety intelligence to make sense of audits that are useful and audits that are chicken poop.

The third-party food safety audit scheme that processors and retailers insisted upon is no better than a financial Ponzi scheme. The vast number of facilities and suppliers means audits are required, but people have been replaced by paper.

Audits, inspections, training and systems are no substitute for developing a strong food safety culture, farm-to-fork, and marketing food safety directly to consumers rather than the local/natural/organic hucksterism is a way to further reinforce the food safety culture.

After the salmonella-in-peanut paste crap, Costco, a retail store, which previously limited AIB’s inspections to its bakery vendors, has now instructed suppliers to not use AIB at all.

“The American Institute of Baking is bakery experts,” said R. Craig Wilson, the top safety official at Costco. “But you stick them in a peanut butter plant or in a beef plant, they are stuffed.”

Or as Mansour Samadpour of Seattle said at the time,

“The contributions of third-party audits to food safety is the same as the contribution of mail-order diploma mills to education.”

Who were the buyers of DeCoster eggs who used AIB audits to justify putting salmonella on grocery store shelves? Any retailers want to step forward?

Coincidentally, Enreco Inc., a maker of flaxseed flours, bragged in a press release yesterday they had earned a “superior" rating from a recent AIB inspection at its Wisconsin production facility.

Enreco president Sean Moriarty said, “We are absolutely pleased to have achieved AIB’s highest rating for four consecutive years now, even while incidents of food product recalls in the last two years have caused AIB to toughen their inspections considerably."

Sean, you may want to rethink that PR.

Salmonella in eggs; DeCoster and Son go to DC

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There’ll be the usual posturing, handwringing and contrition for the cameras at today’s Congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.

Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register reports this morning that Jack DeCoster and his son, Peter, will apologize at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee meeting today to the 1,608 confirmed victims of a salmonella outbreak and pledge not to resume selling fresh eggs until their farms are free from disease.

“While we always believed we were doing the right thing, it is now very clear that we must do more,” said Peter DeCoster, who is chief operating officer of the Wright County Egg operations, which his father owns.

In a 10-page statement obtained by The Des Moines Register, the men point to a feed ingredient purchased from an outside supplier as the likely source of the salmonella contamination. Federal investigators have reported finding salmonella in several areas of the farms in addition to the feed mill.

This is a terrible strategy. Blaming others and failing to outline what DeCoster and Son were actually doing in terms of testing and other steps to manage the risk of salmonella – before the outbreak — will be a rhetorical playground for even the most addle-minded Congressional-types.

It’ll be like angry parents scolding a teenager who says, sorry, I won’t do it again.

The accused is sorry he got caught.

Again.

The N.Y. Times documented this morning the 1987 salmonella-in-eggs outbreak that killed nine and sickened 500, linked to farms owned by … Austin Jack DeCoster.

Farms tied to Mr. DeCoster were a primary source of Salmonella enteritidis in the United States in the 1980s, when some of the first major outbreaks of human illness from the bacteria in eggs occurred, according to health officials and public records. At one point, New York and Maryland regulators believed DeCoster eggs were such a threat that they banned sales of the eggs in their states.

How many others were sickened by DeCoster and Son eggs over the intervening 23 years, in the absence of an outbreak?

Government’s hopeless.

Market microbial food safety at retail so I, as a consumer, have a choice, so I can reward those egg producers who effectively manage salmonella – before there’s an outbreak.
 

Salmonella in sprouts sickens 73, separate salmonella in duck eggs sicken 63; UK bureaucrats blame consumers

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The U.K. Food Standards Agency had a busy day reminding consumers they are the critical control point when it comes to food safety and everything would be fine as long as they cooked things.

Just cook it don’t cut it.

“The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has today reminded people of the importance of good hygiene practice when handling and cooking raw bean sprouts.”

“The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has today reminded consumers and caterers of the importance of good hygiene practice when cooking with and consuming duck eggs.”

There’s some innovation going on in crafting those food safety messages.

The real news is later.

An investigation into an outbreak of salmonella by the Health Protection Agency and Health Protection Scotland has identified possible links to raw bean sprouts. There have been 58 cases reported in England since the start of August and 15 cases in Scotland.

An investigation by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) into an outbreak of Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 indicates that from 1 January 2010 to date, 63 cases of Salmonella Typhimurium DT8 infection have been reported in the UK. Two cases are known to have resulted in people being hospitalised and one death has been reported (although at present it is uncertain whether the death is directly related to the Salmonella infection). Evidence from investigations carried out by the HPA and FSA supports a link between the consumption of duck eggs and this outbreak.

How do British taxpayers feel funding a government agency that seems to spend most of its communications efforts telling taxpayers to do more in a piping-hot-sorta manner?

Consumers have a role; so do the producers, processors and distributors not mentioned in these taxpayer-funded reminders.
 

Big egg farms don’t mean dirty egg farms.

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Newly released reports pointing to years of positive salmonella tests at an Iowa egg facility have baffled some experts and egg producers.

Elizabeth Weise writes in today’s USA Today that Congressional investigators have obtained records that show Wright County Egg had evidence of even more problems than filth and vermin, as reported by the Food and Drug Administration last month. The records show that over the past three years, Wright County, the company at the center of the outbreak that sickened about 1,519 people and led to the recall of 550 million eggs, had multiple positive tests for salmonella in its plant that it did not report.

Numbers that high over that time period indicate "the environmental contamination is widespread on these farms," says Darrell Trampel, professor of production animal medicine at Iowa State University in Ames. "Maybe six to 12 positives … wouldn’t be surprising, but 73 is relatively high."

Besides, "if he’s getting repeated positives back on consecutive tests, that tells you that you’re not getting to the root cause of what the problem is," says Patricia Curtis, director of the poultry products safety program at Auburn University in Alabama.

Dave Thompson, owner of Pearl Valley Eggs in Pearl City, Ill., who produces 800,000 to 850,000 eggs a day, seven days a week, and was featured in a Weise report last month, says he can’t imagine getting numbers like Wright County’s. "I’ve never had a positive, and I test all the time," he says.

Under FDA rules put into place in July, large egg production facilities that have positive tests for salmonella enteritidis will be required to test 1,000 eggs four times at two-week intervals. "If even one egg tests positive, it’s mandatory that those eggs … be pasteurized," Trampel says.

Big ag doesn’t mean bad ag. Organic or conventional, local or global, big or small, there are good farmers and bad farmers. The good ones know all about food safety and continuously work to minimize levels of risk.

Consumers have no way of knowing which eggs or foods were produced by microbiologically prudent farmers and which were produced on dumps. Market microbial food safety at retail so consumers can choose.
 

Salmonella positives on egg farm for past 2 years; why are mortals only finding out now

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Salmonella test results for any egg farm should be publicly available to whoever wants them – on the label, at point-of-sale, on a web site, whatever – if that egg producer wants to gain public trust and confidence. I get the whole good-egg-project concept I watch incessantly on Sesame Street but I’d rather my kid didn’t barf from salmonella-contaminated eggs. I’ll do my part, but I want producers to do their part, and advertize the results so I can vote with my money.

A bunch of media outlets are reporting this afternoon that congressional investigators revealed today lab tests found hundreds of cases of salmonella contamination at an Iowa farm in a nearly two-year period before the outbreak that prompted a massive recall of eggs this summer.

Wright County Egg is one of two farms at the center of the massive recall. In a letter to its owner, Austin "Jack" DeCoster, leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said tests confirmed 426 cases of salmonella contamination between September 2008 and the past July, and 73 were "potentially" positive for the strain of the disease involved in this year’s outbreak.

The committee’s Democratic leaders asked DeCoster to explain those findings when he appears at a September 21 hearing. They also called on him to explain why those test reports weren’t included in material the company has provided to Congress so far, and demanded that the company produce "all documents relating to your response to the test results" by Wednesday.

Iowa State University expert Darrell Trampel told the DesMoines Register that is “quite a high level of contamination.” Ideally, farms would have no positive test results for the bacteria, but it would be typical to have half a dozen to a dozen over that period at the most. The test results are from tests of areas around the hen houses rather than of the eggs themselves.

Why does it take over 1,500 illnesses for such data to be publicly released? And what would a day of raw-egg revelations be without another food porn recipe in, this time, the N.Y. Times, for food-processor mayonnaise, using raw eggs.

I expect continued silence from the egg types.

Egg inspectors failed to raise alarms; government sucks, market microbial food safety at retail

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As the number of salmonella-in-eggs illnesses climbed to 1,519, the Wall Street Journal reported last night that U.S. Department of Agriculture experts found growing sanitary problems including bugs and overflowing trash earlier this year on the Iowa farm at the center of the national egg recall, but didn’t notify health authorities.

The problems laid out in USDA daily sanitation reports viewed by The Wall Street Journal underscore the regulatory gaps that may have contributed to delays in discovering salmonella contamination.

USDA was the only federal body with a regular presence at Wright, but it says it wasn’t responsible for safety. USDA graders were at a Wright egg-packing plant seven days a week to oversee designations such as "Grade A" on egg cartons.

The report validates concerns raised by Alison Young of USA Today last week.

Sen. Charles Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said he had raised questions with Agriculture Secretary (and former Iowa governor – dp) Tom Vilsack about how his department forwards food-safety concerns, adding,

"In my oversight work, I’ve seen far too many federal agencies working in silos, failing to communicate with each other. … Just because food safety isn’t ‘my job’ doesn’t mean it should be ignored."

Would a single-food inspection agency or some federal legislation have empowered the egg graders or the FDAers to do more to limit the salmonella outbreak? Doubtful.

The comments echo those of Craig Wilson, head of food safety at Costco, who told Philip Brasher of the Des Moines Register that Costco had auditors at Wright farms to evaluate animal-welfare condition, adding, "There are a lot of guys going, ‘Hey, wait a minute. They’re finding stuff and our guys were there and they didn’t see it.’ "

In an outbreak situation, especially one with over 1,500 confirmed illnesses, people pay attention to food safety basics. The challenge is to get everyone to pay attention in the absence of an outbreak – it’s that prevention thing.

Which goes to food safety culture and marketing at retail.

David LaCrone of KC Free Press and I chatted about this a couple of weeks ago while a bunch of my kids were with us on the Island. I sound particularly deranged. I blame teenagers.

Dave LaCrone: What do you think the point of the egg recall issue is? I’ve heard people decrying factory farming and mass distribution; some people say “I’m glad I eat organic eggs.” What is your perspective?

Douglas Powell: That has nothing to do with food safety and things that make people barf. Your backyard eggs are going to have salmonella just as much as your factory farm does. All I’ve seen is political and legal opportunism at this point. People take whatever they see and use it to fit their political lens, whether it’s “I want federal legislation passed,” or “I want organic food,” and there’s really not a whole lot of discussion of biology.

DL: In other words, these kinds of risks are inherent pretty much in any kind of egg all the time.

DP: Yeah, and they always have been. Since the recall, you have all these consumer warnings that say you should always eat fully cooked eggs. But you look at the egg people’s literature and they have loving pictures of hollandaise sauce and poached eggs that are barely cooked. They come out now and say “no we’ve always said that” and I’m like “bullshit, you did!”

DL: Is there anything we or the government can do?

DP: I have low expectations of government. I find it amusing that people want to give government more authority, the same people who screwed up Katrina, screwed up the oil well. Why is that a solution? I don’t get it.

DL: Well then, do you think corporate self-regulation is a solution?

DP: No, it’s not an either/or. My solution would be the buying power of individual consumers. What I would like to see is these egg companies or spinach producers, whoever … advertise their microbial food safety record right there on the package. I don’t care if it’s natural, if there’s a picture of a farm or if it was lovingly raised. I want to know if it’s gonna make me barf.

There are billions of meals served every year where people don’t get sick, so obviously they are doing something right. Why not market it? But they won’t because that would imply that other food is unsafe. Well guess what? Other food is unsafe. The best way the consumers can act is through their buying power. Right now they are doing it through the B.S. organic stuff. They are being held hostage by people who don’t make direct claims about food safety but hint at it. Why else do you think they buy natural or local?

DL: Well, I think there are a lot of reasons but I do think it’s a burgeoning thing with parents of young children, especially upper middle-class parents that think that it’s more healthy and safer to eat organic.

DP: Yeah, I have a 20-month-old, does that mean I’m a bad parent for shopping at a grocery store?

DL: I have to ask if your knowledge bleeds over into your choice of where you eat and what to eat? Are there foods you won’t buy or you won’t eat when you go out?

DP: Not much. I have five kids so I have been doing this for a while. I go to the biggest supermarkets I can find because they usually have the quality assurance programs that are demanding of their suppliers: “If you’re gonna sell food in my Wal-Mart you have to meet these microbial standards.” I know the head of food safety at Wal-Mart, they have a very good program. Does anyone who goes to Wal-Mart know that? No.
 

Egg recall: Mouse, fly infestations date back 10 years, workers say

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Just like with the salmonella outbreak involving Peanut Corporation of America, employees of DeCoster egg operations in Iowa are now coming forward to say problems with mice, filth and flies go back at least 10 years.

Past and present workers at Wright County Egg said mouse and fly infestations cited in a federal report stretch back at least a decade.?? The workers also reported ammonia levels high enough to cause chronic health problems, and inconsistent availability of safety equipment such as face masks and gloves.

Dozens of chickens died daily, their bodies lying undiscovered in cages for days, and perhaps weeks, at a time, they said.?? "There’s always been mice," former worker Lucas Garcias said through an interpreter. "I saw maggots and sometimes mice on the conveyor belt.”

And who was governor of Iowa during those years? Step forward current U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary, Tom Vilsack.

Philip Brasher of the DesMoinesRegister.com also writes today the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship is taking a second look at its authority over the Galt feed mill that supplied the DeCoster egg operations. The state agency had decided before the massive egg recall linked to the DeCoster farms that the feed mill was exempt from state oversight. Company officials told inspectors that the DeCoster-owned mill only supplied the company’s hens. That exemption has been called into question by news that the mill was supplying feed to a second company, Hillandale Farms of Iowa, that was also involved in the recall.

Salmonella in eggs: public relations pros suck at PR

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A summary of egg-talk, almost one month into the salmonella-in-half-a-billion-egg recall that has sickened at least 1,500.

Risk comparisons are risky

The Iowa egg folks wrote at the beginning of the outbreak in mid-Aug. that “the chance of an egg containing Salmonella Enteritidis is rare in the U.S. Several years ago, it was estimated that 1 in 20,000 eggs might have been contaminated, which meant most consumers probably wouldn’t come in contact with such an egg but 1 time in 84 years.”

Some industry-apologist lawyer wrote, “you and I are ten times more likely to die in an auto accident this year than to culture positive for SE as a result of eating eggs (which averages about 1 in 120,000 annually).”

These may be statistically accurate, but are of no comfort to those barfing. The American Egg Board estimates the risk of an egg being contaminated with salmonella at about 1 in 20,000. Holding my nose at one end and something else at the other and assuming such an estimate is accurate (and it’s a pooled estimate so is widely variable), if I make mayo or egg nog or dip into the pancake batter, I’ve upped the risk to 5-6 out of 20,000. If a restaurant is making mayo or aioli, dozens if not hundreds or thousands of eggs could be used, cross-contaminating the kitchen area and potentially sickening lots of people daily.

There’s a different risk exposure dealing with a few eggs at home and the thousands used daily in food service. Risk gets amplified real easy.

Simple messages aren’t simple

More than one misguided commenter has said, here are the facts – just cook your eggs.

Just cook it is an ineffective risk slogan, like, don’t do drugs, employees must wash hands, and, we don’t swim in your toilet so please don’t pee in our pool.

“If you are concerned, just make sure you cook your eggs to well done. If you have someone that is ill or on immunosuppressive medication, you should do this regardless of the source of eggs. In the meantime, my local stores don’t sell eggs with any of the recalled labels, so I had mine over easy this morning.”

I don’t have those special salmonella-vision goggles, and worry more about cross-contamination with those ubiquitous egg juices.

After FDA found piles of crap in Iowa farms linked to the salmonella outbreak, the Iowa Poultry Association said in a statement, the “Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) both state that thoroughly cooked eggs are thoroughly safe eggs. Consumers should know that salmonella is destroyed by the heat of proper cooking. Eggs should be cooked until the whites and yolks are firm. For dishes containing eggs, the internal temperature should reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit.”

Again, nothing about cross-contamination, which we know happens routinely based on hundreds of hours of video observation from food service kitchens.

Jennifer Perry, a post-doctoral researcher at Ohio State University had it more correct:

“Eggs are a raw product. Although it is rare to find Salmonella inside the egg, research conducted by U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists has demonstrated that the pathogen may be present on the exterior of about 8 percent of shell eggs, yet people treat them as if they’re sterile. They wouldn’t handle raw chicken breast the way they handle eggs, but they probably should treat the products about the same.”

Industry and government suck at communication …

… and are apparently terrified to go public with information that could prevent others from getting sick. They also don’t seem to care about the trust lost when people find out information was available that could prevent others from barfing.

State and federal health agencies identified an Iowa egg company as a likely source of illness at least two weeks before the firm launched a massive egg recall Aug. 13, 2010, and the public got its first hint of a growing national salmonella outbreak.

CDC announced on Aug. 16, 2010, a four-fold increase over the expected number of reported isolates of this particular SE PFGE pattern.

But it wasn’t until Elizabeth Weise of USA Today put the numbers into context – 228 million eggs recalled, an increase from the normal 50 salmonella cases per week to 200 in June — on Aug. 18, 2010, that the story began to garner national attention.

On Aug. 19, CDC said, about 1,400 people were sick: that got attention.

Yet there has been a vacuum of silence from government and industry surrounding this outbreak, a vacuum that animal welfare and political opportunists are all too ready to fill.

Chris Clayton of the Progressive Farmer wrote last week that as events have unfolded following a 550-million egg recall, groups created to be agriculture advocates — agvocates — have remained relatively quiet about the situation.

“These groups established by various producer organizations and allied industries to defend agriculture don’t want to talk about how ag should respond to the recall and the large business at the center of the federal health probe and possible criminal investigation. … the groups created within agriculture to address perceptions about agriculture are shying away from talking about the DeCoster fiasco.”

FDA, other federal agencies and industry, do themselves a tremendous disservice by failing to clearly articulate how and when the public (and industry) should be informed about potential health risks. No amount of federal legislation or lawsuits will fix this. Instead it requires a recommitment to having fewer people barf. And any company that wants to lead – especially with profits – will stop hiding behind the cloak of government inspection and will make test results public, market food safety at retail so consumers can choose, and if people get sick from your product, will be the first to tell the public.
 

Large or small-scale eggs, is one safer?

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Elizabeth Weise of USA Today writes in a story just posted on-line that there is nothing small scale about Pearl Valley Eggs, deep in the heart of Illinois farm country. The egg farm itself, two miles south of the nearest town, is a neat collection of 350-foot- and 450-foot henhouses covered in white steel siding. They’re linked by overhead pipes that bring in ground corn and soybeans from the farm’s own feed mill and conveyor belts that take out chicken poop.

The farm employs 100 people and produces 800,000 to 850,000 eggs a day, seven days a week.

Yet, in the face of the nation’s largest recorded egg recall, a total of 550 million eggs potentially infected with salmonella enteritidis, and revelations of filthy conditions at the two Iowa egg farms involved, many animal rights groups and organic supporters have pointed a finger of blame at industrial animal agriculture.

Ben Thompson, 30, who runs Pearl Valley Eggs with his father, Dave, who founded the business in 1987 and now houses 1.1 million Shaver chickens in seven henhouses, says since the Thompsons began testing a decade ago, the farm has never once had a positive test for salmonella enteritidis.

The story says there is a definite link between large flock size and salmonella. On average, large-scale U.S. layer operations with more than 100,000 hens per house are four times more likely to test positive for salmonella enteritidis than smaller houses with fewer than 100,000 hens, according to a paper set for publication in January in the journal Poultry Science. The report suggests that one reason might be that salmonella is transmitted in contaminated feces and dust, and higher densities of birds mean more of both.

At the same time, scientists caution that there haven’t been good studies to show the rate of salmonella infection in equally large flocks that are cage free.

Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of the School of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University in East Lansing, says, "It is about management — each type (of production method) has its advantages and disadvantages."

At Pearl Valley, Dave Thompson says happy hens, safe eggs and making a profit are possible, but it takes a lot of attention to detail and spending 12 hours a day, seven days a week in the barns. "I take good care of my birds and my wife, and I put every penny back into the farm."