Sunday Edition: NOAA

Objectives assigned to NOAA include ensuring a safe and sustainable supply of seafood

Quick bites from around the food safety arena this week

• An unusual outbreak of both E. coli and Salmonella linked to sprouts continues to widen. As of Oct. 1, there were 76 confirmed patients across 16 states. One company, Everything Sprouts LLC, has already recalled certain alfalfa sprouts sold under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands. An as-yet unnamed supplier has identified a seed lot that had the potential to be contaminated with E. coli and/or Salmonella. That prompted another company, Berlin Seeds, to recall nearly 950 pounds of alfalfa sprouting seeds.
• The FDA announced that it had found the Cyclospora parasite in wash water at the Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce facility in Central Mexico. And, the parasite was found in a ditch on one of the company’s contract growers property. The findings bring the agency close to concluding that the source of the nation’s largest Cyclospora outbreak – which sickened almost 13,000 people and killed two – was lettuce from the operation.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating a new outbreak of infections from Listeria monocytogenes. At least 11 patients have been confirmed, but the FDA is not sharing any information about the patients or what food it is tracing as a possible source of contamination.
• Researchers investigating an outbreak of Salmonella Enteritidis in France linked the illnesses to pumpkin seeds originating in Austria. Eighty-one people were affected between May 31 and Aug. 12. Eight were hospitalized.
• Cryptosporidiosis and Giardiasis have both been removed the list of communicable diseases subject to epidemiological surveillance in Europe. The European Commission says both conditions tend to result in localized outbreaks with no cross-border public health dimension that would justify continued surveillance at the EU level. Other diseases such as anthrax, Listeriosis, Salmonella and Trichinellosis remain on the list.

Today’s Topic: NOAA

Among the many federal agencies responsible for food safety, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is often overlooked. 

NOAA is the U.S. Department of Commerce’s scientific and regulatory agency tasked with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploration, and managing fisheries and protecting marine mammals and endangered species in the U.S. exclusive economic zone. 

The Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the primary law that governs marine fisheries management in U.S. federal waters, also tasked NOAA with making sure seafood is safe and sustainable.