Prosecutors may not end up filing criminal charges against operators of a Colorado farm whose tainted cantaloupes are suspected of killing 29 people.
They would have to prove willful negligence, and at this point, evidence of that sort of culpability hasn’t come to light.
A lack of charges in such circumstances, however, should not be seen as a failure. It may be that the criminal justice system is not the best venue for addressing most food contamination issues. And civil lawsuits remain an option.
Meanwhile, a careful examination of conditions at Jensen Farms that led to an outbreak could very well offer important lessons on how to improve the nation’s food safety system.
For instance, questions have been raised about the efficacy of a third-party audit done on Jensen operations shortly before the outbreak.
The private auditor, hired by Jensen to comply with standards set by buyers, made note of potentially dangerous changes the farm made to its operation but didn’t raise warning flags about those changes.
For instance, the auditor observed that the farm had stopped adding a chlorine-based agent to water used to wash the melons. Such an additive could have knocked down listeria and other pathogens.
“The absence of use of chlorine in the water as the melons were being washed was an extraordinarily unfortunate decision,” Trevor Suslow, a University of California-Davis food-safety expert, told The Denver Post for a story that was published last month.
The auditing industry, as it is called, is not regulated, according to a Colorado State University microbiologist also quoted in the story.
Unfortunately, a widely lauded food safety act, passed last year, may not offer answers to this problem.
The landmark Food Modernization Safety Act, which we strongly supported, has yet to be funded. And even if Washington somehow manages to put the money together to pay for it, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s goal is to inspect each grower every five to seven years.
That may not be enough to root out problems before they turn into mass outbreaks of sickness or death.
Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, has requested a congressional hearing on the cantaloupe issue. We hope the Republican-controlled House allows for it.
And if it were to be held, we would hope federal lawmakers would probe questions about whether the new food safety act, the rules for which are still being written, can be helpful in preventing an outbreak like the one that originated at Jensen Farms.
Over the years, there have been many stomach-turning outbreaks of food-borne illness — with such sources as tainted peanut butter, spinach and turkey, to name a few.
Though criminal prosecutions associated with these episodes are rare, such incidents can provide a wealth of information that leads to improvements in the food safety system.
