Washington, Mar. 12 - The Food and Drug Administration issued guidelines Monday for food processors aimed at cutting down on food-borne illness outbreaks associated with fresh-cut produce.
The FDA noted fresh-cut or prepackaged produce like spinach, lettuce and fruit is the fastest-growing segment of the $12 billion annual produce industry.
In the past 10 years, the FDA said there's been 72 outbreaks of food-borne illnesses from contamination with bacteria such as E.coli. Since last summer, there's been high-profile illness outbreaks associated with fresh spinach and with shredded lettuce at Taco Bell and Taco John's restaurants. Taco Bell is a unit of Yum Brands Inc. (YUM).
The agency said processing produce into fresh-cut product increases the risk of bacterial contamination and growth by breaking the natural exterior barrier of the produce by peeling, slicing, coring, or trimming the produce before it's packed for consumer use. The increased risk remains even if the produce is washed before packaging.
The guidelines, which are nonbinding and still must be approved by the Office of Management and Budget, make recommendations for the estimated 250 food processors that take produce from farms, process it and package it for consumer use.
"In general anything that comes into contact with fresh produce has the potential to contaminate it," the guidelines state.
The guidelines recommend the establishment of a formal program designed to cut down on food-borne illnesses that includes knowing the practices of growers and transporters, instructing workers on good hygiene and reporting their own illnesses along with several recommendations on how to operate food plants in order to cut down on sources of bacterial contamination. Plant-operation guidelines include instructions on how to sanitize equipment and surfaces as well as recommendations on designing collection areas for waste water and limiting the movement of people and equipment between receiving, storage areas and processing areas.
The FDA that about half of the roughly 250 fresh-cut processors do not have a formal program in place for reducing contamination risks.
"Offering clearer guidance to industry should aid in the reduction of health hazards that may be introduced or increased during the fresh-cut produce production process," FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach said in a statement.
The FDA also said consumers can reduce their risk of illness from fresh-cut produce by following safe handling practices such as refrigerating the product after purchase, and using clean hands and utensils to handle the product as well and eating or discarding the product by the "use by" date.