Introduction
The United States Food Safety Inspection Service just announced a public health alert concerning headcheese deli meat products distributed in the Tri-State area that may be contaminated with the bacteria listeria monocytogenes. The announcement was made in relation to a current outbreak investigation of illness in Illinois. Three people have been affected by this outbreak so far. Preventing and containing bacteria and other pathogens in our food is a complex process and listeria in meat products is one of the most difficult things for the food industry to combat. This article will cover the effects of this outbreak, the severity of listeria illness, how the government handles these situations, and what this says about food safety in America.
The role of the Food Safety Inspection Service
Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) is a federal agency in charge of safeguarding the U.S. commercial supply chain of meat, poultry, and processed egg products. Due to this responsibility, FSIS plays a large role when outbreaks occur. When FSIS made the decision to issue a public alert instead of waiting for a recall to be issued during the outbreak in Illinois, they took it upon themselves to make sure their consumers were educated and aware of the danger. As the agency in charge, FSIS implemented a team of field inspectors, lab scientists, etc. to conduct the outbreak response. The FSIS inspectors work diligently to keep food production plants in check. Not only do they check these production plants, but they also investigate when outbreaks occur and notify the public. During the Tri-State outbreak public alert, FSIS was able to alert the public about the danger of the outbreak and what to do if you came into contact with the product. They were able to do this by collaborating with the state health departments and the CDC to track down the people who may have been affected by the outbreak.
Regulations and protocols for meat product safety
America's system of food safety regulations is one of the most robust around the globe. However, food borne outbreaks such as this continue to happen which shows that improvement and development can always be made to better food safety. When it comes to meat regulations and policies, the inspection of meat that is going to be sold and consumed by humans needs to be processed under sanitary conditions that will ensure the safety and wholesomeness of the meat and that the product is properly labeled. This policy is enforced by the FSIS under the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Additional policies become if effect when ready-to-eat products such as head cheese are being produced. Ready-to-eat refers to any product that will be consumed without further preparation such as cooking. Cooking kills harmful bacteria such as listeria therefore these products have to go through more policies in order to be allowed to ship. Some of these policies include validated HACCP plans, environmental testing for listeria, and proper sanitation of all food contact surfaces. All surfaces must be cleaned and sanitized. The policies put in place by FSIS explain what a positive environmental test result means. If a positive sample is found, it must be corrected by cleaning the area and resampling. The official must look for the source of the problem and take action to prevent it from happening again. If the problem persists they can issue a product hold, retest, and if positive samples continue take further actions such as condemning the product and facility or issuing a recall. This outbreak could have been prevented if there were more unannounced surveillance inspections and if the facility was transparent with their records. Policies such as these should require stricter punishment if there are repeat cases of listeria.
Effects of listeria contamination on public health
Listeria is different from other pathogens you may have heard about because it can make you sick even if you ingest only a small amount. It can also grow even when most bacteria can't, like in your refrigerator. When someone eats food contaminated with Listeria, they can get a relatively harmless intestinal illness. But they can also develop a more severe disease called invasive listeriosis. This can spread to the bloodstream, brain, and spinal cord. Healthy individuals can get diarrhea and fever that goes away on its own. But certain populations such as pregnant women have a higher risk — up to 10 times higher — of getting very sick. If pregnant women contract listeria, they can miscarry or deliver stillbirths or preterm birth. Newborn babies can contract the disease from their mother and become very ill, sometimes fatally. Beyond the severe personal outcomes, listeria affects communities as a whole. Hospitals may become overwhelmed with patients and responsible companies often issue costly recalls. Public health departments have to devote significant resources to alerting the public about the outbreak and working to determine its source. Each year, hospitalizations and deaths due to Listeria cost the public tens of millions of dollars. There have been three confirmed cases in Illinois.
Impact of localized listeria outbreak on consumers
There are three confirmed cases of illness due to the Tri-State outbreak in Illinois. For those three consumers who have become ill, early consequences range from abdominal pain to potential life-threatening infections that require hospitalization. However, there are many other costs to those who may have purchased headcheese deli meat from the implicated stores. What if I bought one of these products? Am I at risk for listeria infection? Do I need to go to the doctor? How will I know if I'm sick? As a caregiver, I'm worried about my loved one(s) becoming ill. Is the risk worth worrying about? Symptoms of listeriosis can be vague during the early stages of illness. How do I balance the risk of exposure vs. worrying about vague symptoms? What about my grocery store? I sell food in my local community. This outbreak affects my local food retail market. I have to take the product off my shelf and deal with concerned customers. What is this costing me? Will my customers ever trust deli meat products again?
Importance of ongoing illness outbreak investigations
In order to issue the public warning about this Tri-State listeria outbreak, there needed to be an infrastructure in place that is constantly conducting illness outbreak investigations. Throughout the United States there are teams of federal, state, and local health agencies that work together to identify when clusters of foodborne illness occur. With advanced tools such as whole genome sequencing of bacteria samples, these teams are able to detect potential outbreaks earlier than they may have in the past. Once three illnesses in Illinois were detected to be connected, there was now the information needed to prevent further illnesses. Although only three illnesses were reported from this outbreak, we can thank the continued investigation efforts that are always taking place to find outbreaks like this before thirty, three hundred, or even three thousand people become sick. If we did not have the ability to conduct these outbreak investigations, we would not be able to detect these clusters until significantly more people become sick. Continuing to provide the resources necessary to conduct these investigations is not only important – it’s our responsibility.
Challenges in identifying and preventing listeria contamination
Listeria monocytogenes is extremely difficult to control and poses many challenges to the meat industry. Listeria monocytogenes is well adapted to survive in food processing environments, especially under refrigeration temperatures. Due to this survival ability, they can cause contamination sources that persist over time on equipment surfaces that are difficult to clean, such as floors drains, junctures of conveyor belts and boxes, and pipes in cooling units. Listeria monocytogenes is also able to grow quickly in biofilms formed on food-contact and food non-contact surfaces making it difficult to completely remove them from the facility even with strong sanitation programs. Detection of listeria monocytogenes can also be difficult. When it is present in low levels in a facility it may go undetected during routine testing. Listeria monocytogenes may contaminate product intermittently or in an untraceable manner. Additionally, when illness occurs it takes longer to investigate because the symptoms can take up to 70 days to present themselves. Some ways to overcome these obstacles are by improving training of employees, having improved facility design standards, improving regulatory enforcement, using rapid whole-genome sequencing technology, and developing next generation environmental sampling technologies.
Conclusion
You may have noticed last week’s press release from the CDC warning customers about meat purchased from dozens of locations in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. This is a serious food safety warning issued in response to listeria monocytogenes found at locations in the Tri-State area and should be heeded by anyone who may have purchased meat from these sites. As of this writing, there are only three confirmed cases of listeria in Illinois (with another three possible cases) but you have to wonder how many other possible cases there are and how many others will surface in the coming days. Although this outbreak is being taken seriously, it really shouldn’t have happened in the first place. We have known about listeria in the meat industry for decades, and should have protocols and safeguards in place to prevent these types of outbreaks from happening. So what’s next? For starters the FSIS needs to be given the resources to follow up on these types of outbreaks and to penalize companies that violate the food safety laws. We also need to invest in better detection methods and technology. Finally, we as consumers need to pay attention and follow the advice given by public health officials. About the Author: Dawn Sokol is Editor of Online Beef Producer, Online Pork Producer and Online Corn & Soybean. Dawn is a writer and blogger who lives on a diversified family farm in Central Illinois. She can be reached at dsokol@spannews.com.
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