supermarket
SMGN Health Department
MRSA and the food chain - What Grocers Can Do
October 24 , 2007
MRSA starts out looking like a spider bite, less than the size of a quarter, but it's big news. Prior to this week's California fires, reports were coming out that there were more identified cases than AIDs. News like this doesn't just disappear.
Thanks to the news, "MRSA fever" is more of a fear than a disease. But whether the smoke from the fires obscures public fears or not, the newest plague still has the nation checking their skin and visiting their dermatologists. And the problem isn't going to go away.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on October 17, 2007 estimated that close to 19,000 Americans died of MRSA in 2005 and 94,000 Americans could contract the disease every year. The fires will be put out, but the spread of MRSA is going to increase steadily.
But there is good news ...
"MRSA is not the kind of infection that is spread in food or water, nor can it be acquired by ingestion” says Dr. Larry Bush, in an interview with SMGN. Dr. Bush is a local (South Florida-based) infectious disease expert.
Lisa Carvin, of SMGN also asked whether livestock & chickens could contract MRSA-related infections.
“I imagine they can carry the bacteria but I am unaware of any described infections in them with MRSA.”
Unsure responses such as these by authorities are not so assuring. People are dying and the disease has mutated to stronger more antibiotic resistant forms. It is no longer confined to recovering patients in sterile hospital environments. Now that it is no longer contained it is a serious public threat.
Even more disturbing news is that the resistance of the strains is increasing. First there was MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). Now there is VRSA (Vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). Vancomycin resistance is very bad news indeed. We don't have antibiotics that can combat the VRSA form.
The good news for grocers is that it is a primarily blood born disease. The bad news is that it can still be transferred via the skin. If it's an uncontrollable problem in very sterile environments such as hospitals, where formerly 85% of cases originated, what will happen now that the disease is in the market place?
Blood born pathogens arise in hospitals. The public needs to be aware of how. It's not like they are exchanging needles in our hospitals. Mostly it is exposure of wounds, though usually covered, to the air, and to hospital equipment - metal rails, linens and food trays.
Despite many radical measures to control the disease, hospitals have been sued and doctors have been put out of business for failing to do enough. SMGN suggests that grocers need to consider what their employees and their customers come into contact with as well.
One independent food distributor in Florida, Cheney Brothers, offers its customers Instant E.coli and Salmonella test strips. SMGN wonders about the wisdom of putting customers on the alert this way unless they can offer comparisons against their competition or upsell food product to convince the public to shop organic.
Grocers gone green can use the news on MRSA to their advantage without passing out test kits. The threat of MRSA and now VRSA is magnified by the weakness of the human immune system due to lifetimes of eating meat that's been overly inocculated.
In days of increasing environmental consciousness multiplied by blogging and threats like MRSA the value of organic meats increases dramatically. For instance, a recent post by Terry Singeltary included a letter by the FDA to the Richard Hayes Cattle Company of Hereford, Texas citing violations of Sections
402(a)(2)©(ii), and 402(a)(4) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
Random tissue samples collected identified the presence of 9.90 ppm of tilmicosin in the liver, and 13.70 ppm tilmicosin in the muscle tissue. A tolerance of 1.2 ppm is established for residues of tilmicosin in the edible tissues of cattle according to Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 556.7351.
Food Safety is the business of the FDA. The possibility of bioterrorism is also a concern, resulting in increasing efforts under Operation Liberty Shield, which has as its mission "surveillance of the domestic food industry."
OLS proposals cover food stores and food service establishments such as bakeries, bars, cafeterias, commissaries, convenience stores, fairs, grocery stores, food service for airlines and trains, restaurants, and vending machine operators as well as cosmetic establishments. They also identify preventive measures that operators can utilize to minimize the security risks to their products. MRSA is a concern.
But according to statements made recently by the Health on the Net Foundation, a non-government controlled information hub on the web, the FDA is not able to ensure food safety. Doubts about Homeland Security's ability to protect the food chain are fueled by political feelings.
Grocers don't have to just wait for more bad news though. What the FDA can't do buying agents can handle instead. And it doesn't need to mean increasing costs. Testing should be a regular practice. That should make customers feel comfortable shopping with you. Testing for bioterror may sound off-the-wall, but checking for high levels of antibiotics in the food supply is practical.
Use it as a strategy. As an example, in testing meat as it comes in, use tests showing high levels of antibiotics as a bargaining tool not to raise, but lower prices from big suppliers. This strategy can be used even where Federal threshholds are met 100% of the time. The lower the levels the higher the value of the meat to your customers and to you.
It's the proactive grocer that wins in the new day of health consciousness. What goes into meat feed is no longer hidden from smart, very vocal buyers.
Today's grocers create prestige by presenting healthy looking food and a clean image, but days are coming when impressing the public with not just a healthier food supply but an absolutely sterile environment will be the norm. Grocers who fail to meet standards will be shut down not by regulation and fines but by buyer awareness.
Over use of antibiotics and antibiotic resistance is on the minds of today's customer. MRSA is also now known to spread in jails and locker rooms. Supermarket bathrooms need to be cleaned more frequently. But that isn't enough.
Employees should be wearing gloves not just when handling food. Hospital-level sterilization needs to be used not just in Supermarket bathrooms. Employees need to be trained not just for the sake of customers but for their own lives' sake to wash throughly. Providing deeper sinks for scrubbing and disposable gloves not just to those who handle food, will serve as a reminder to clean up. Frequent meetings reminding employees of what these are for is essential.
Other equipment needs to be sterile as well. Meat racks are a huge concern as is other cooking and cutting equipment. It needs to not just be washed. It needs to be sterilized.
Sterilization does not have to mean adding to costs. A simple sterilizing device over a bathroom door handle that makes a door knob "hospital-clean" every time someone opens or shuts it costs much less than hot water running from the tap and requires no special soap.
Smart grocers will find ways to automate the sterilization process. Consider Uniglobe's Cartsafe's shopping cart sterilizing system, for instance. Grocers are already making the public aware that cart handles are a major source of bacteria simply by supplying sanitary wipes. Arizona even
signed shopping cart handle solutions into law. But wipes are not a sterilizing method that would offer true protection against an insidious disease like MRSA.
"If you've got a cut on your hand and it's infected with MRSA and then you go shopping, the next person that uses your cart goes unprotected" states Michael Tranchina, a Uniglobe executive.
Uniglobe's cart washing system was featured in an SMGN article October 13th. The new system increases cart washing productivity sixfold. Cart washing has formerly taken place by cover of night, as grocers are aware that the chemical run off to their parking lots is a violation of the EPA's Clean Water Act. The Uniglobe Cartsafe system recycles the water it uses to sterilize the carts.
Interviews conducted by staff reporter, Lisa Carvin
Contact Lisa at editor @ supermarketgreennews.com