SAN FRANCISCO – State agriculture officials gave California lettuce and spinach processors the go-ahead yesterday to move forward with a voluntary inspection program that would allow participants to put a food safety seal of approval on their products.
The Department of Food and Agriculture approved the plan after 24 handlers that wash, package and ship about 70 percent of the leafy greens processed in the state agreed to take part. The program was put forward by the produce industry after the spinach-related E. coli scare that sickened people from coast to coast last year.
“We have enough participation where the agreement will accomplish what it set out to accomplish,” said Dave Kranz, an agriculture department spokesman.
The plan creates a marketing agreement among produce shippers and handlers that agree to buy only from growers who can show they protected crops against E. coli and other contamination by building fences to keep stray animals away from crops, routinely testing irrigation water for bacteria and meeting other requirements.
The program is designed to reassure consumers who buy lettuce and other leafy greens carrying a Food and Agriculture Department seal that the products were produced in accordance with set food safety standards, Kranz said.
Industry groups such as the California Farm Bureau and the Produce Marketing Association now plan to come up with the detailed guidelines that participating companies must follow. A board appointed by the state's agriculture secretary would be responsible for overseeing inspections of participating processing plants to gauge adherence to the guidelines.
The 24 companies signed up so far came from a pool of about 140 leafy-green handlers in the state, but represent about 70 percent of the product because they included most of the largest processors, Kranz said.
A separate program is in the works to cover lettuce and spinach growers that get their products to market without working through a go-between business, he added.
State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who has introduced a bill that would set more stringent, mandatory production standards for leafy greens and put the responsibility for overseeing California-grown produce under the state health department, said the agriculture department's approval of the industry plan does not obviate the need for his bill.
Even though the largest processors have agreed to participate, Florez said he was concerned that the number of companies that signed on means the industry is not serious about policing itself.
Florez was appointed this week to head a new Senate Select Committee on Food-Borne Illness, which is scheduled to consider the processing marketing pact and his bill on Feb. 28.
