Sacramento, Calif.-New food safety procedures being adopted by California growers of spinach, lettuce, and other leafy green produce to calm consumer fears about E. coli include a ban on the use of untreated manure, a spokesman for the Western Growers Assn. (WGA) has confirmed. WGA is calling it a marketing agreement that is “the fulfillment of a promise we made to the nation in the wake of the food safety crisis that started with the E. coli outbreak in September of last year,” declared CEO and President Tom Nassif. Fresh produce handlers are required to accept produce only from farmers who follow specific food safety procedures, which include testing and mitigation of water, sanitation of tools, worker hygiene, and washing of produce. WGA spokesman Tom Chilling informed Green Markets that the procedures “do include a ban (on untreated manure).” Asked if that means there is concern that manure could be one of the contributors to E. coli, Chilling responded, “Actually no concern was expressed about manure per se.” The marketing agreement coincides with a movement in the California Legislature to amend the state’s agriculture health and safety code to prohibit use of “uncomposted, incompletely composted or non-thermally treated manure as a fertilizer or soil amendment” and other practices such as maintaining field toilets. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Dean Florez, who represents the Kern County agriculture area, would impose fines for violations up to $5,000 and jail terms of up to a year, and allow the State Dept. of Public Health to impose additional fines of up to $25,000.
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