Food Safety in Arizona: Food Contaminants Really Don't Care Whether Food is Organic
By Philip Bashaw, Arizona Farm Bureau
In early August, the owner of a Venice, California health food retail establishment named Rawesome and two others were arrested for violation of food safety standards related to unpasteurized dairy products. This event has sparked a heated debate over government regulation of food safety and the perceived crackdown on organic food production and raw foods by the powerful food lobby.
Local foods have been growing in popularity over the last several years and consumers are more interested in where their food comes from and how it is produced. According to USDA, farmers markets have grown from 1,755 in 1994 to over 7,000 in 2011. The local foods movement has been very successful in marketing locally grown foods, farmers markets, CSA’s and other retail outlets like Rawesome. But food safety must be a consideration for any type of food, no matter how it is produced.
Food contaminants really don’t care whether food is organic, where it is sold, or how it is sold. Food-borne illnesses don’t care if organics taste better, or locally grown foods are better for the environment, or raw milk has higher nutritional value. These are all marketing aspects of individual production methods.
There are reasons you do not store raw uncovered chicken next to unpasteurized milk, as the folks from Rawesome did, nor cut fresh produce on the same cutting board as raw chicken. There is a reason why you wash your hands before leaving the bathroom and preparing a meal. These are common sense food safety practices you conduct because food-borne illness is real and it is dangerous.
Recent recalls of ground beef and ground turkey show us that no one is exempt from the possibility of contamination. Over the past several years, eggs, pistachios, peanuts, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach and countless other products have been linked to food-borne illnesses and drawn attention to the importance of food safety.
Certain agricultural products are more susceptible to transmitting food-borne illness than others. Natural products like dairy and some juices provide a natural breeding ground for food-borne illness. Proper handling and pasteurization significantly reduce the risks associated with food-borne illness. While unpasteurized products are legal in California, they must be produced under specific guidelines to ensure proper handling as the risks of food-borne illness increase significantly in mishandled, unpasteurized products.
I am not one for excessive regulations, but if I purchase food from someone I think it’s important that it come from a responsible source. I support everyone’s right to purchase whatever food production methods they like, that includes raw milk. But, I don’t see the raid on Rawesome as an affront to organic, natural, or raw foods, or the people who wish to consume those products. I believe it is about ensuring food safety through proper handling.
It is easy to advocate “buyer beware” as some organic retailers do, but tell that to the person who becomes gravely ill from salmonella or the family who loses a child to listeria because purchased foods were not handled correctly.
While the government has a tendency to overreach and create over burdensome regulations, and that could be the case in some instances with respect to food safety, it is important to remember that food safety from the field to the plate is everyone’s responsibility no matter how the food was produced or marketed.
