Health Law

USDA regulation for leafy green industries?

By Marler Clark LLP

Jane Liaw from the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported today on USDA's proposal to ask the public about whether the leafy green industry should be further regulated.  More regulation would be USDA's response to several E. coli outbreaks that have been the result of consumption of contaminated produce.  Liaw wrote:

One option on the table is a national version of the industry-developed standards that followed the E. coli outbreak and now govern California farmers and leafy green handlers. Though some farmers in Santa Cruz County are unhappy about the regulations, most support national standards.

"We'd get a uniform set of food safety standards. Nothing wrong with that," said Michael Dobler of Dobler & Sons in Watsonville, who believes that everyone should be held to the standards he already embraces.

The USDA is considering both voluntary and mandatory standards, officials say, but favors a voluntary program that allows flexibility.

Much controversy has come from last year's spinach E. coli outbreak - but so have changes.  California and Arizona leafy greens producers have signed marketing agreements that were designed to encourage good manufacturing practices across their industry, and the United Fresh Produce Association asked the government to step in and regulate farming and processing practices for leafy greens. 

Full post as published by e.Coli Blog on November 29, 2007 (boomark / email).