University center launches national study to keep food healthy

Mothers have always said vegetables are the healthiest foods, and university researchers haven't forgotten — in fact, some are working to keep them that way.

Led by Robert Buchanan, director of this university's Center for Food Safety and Security Systems, a team of about 24 researchers from universities, federal agencies and food companies across the country will launch a five-year study aimed at keeping tomatoes and leafy greens free of contaminants as they grow, get harvested and are shipped to veggie-lovers nationwide.

Armed with a $9 million grant — $5.4 million of which came from the U.S. Department of Agriculture — the team hopes to stave off disease outbreaks caused by toxins such as salmonella and E. coli. Just yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control announced an E. coli outbreak that stemmed from romaine lettuce and infected at least 60 people from 10 states.

"What it boils down to is people keep getting sick," said Manan Sharma, a research microbiologist for the USDA's Agricultural Research Services. "You don't want people to have to be worrying about what they're eating all the time."

And the researchers will aim to minimize these concerns by creating standards food growers and processors must meet, according to Shirley Micallef, a plant science professor on the team.

"This kind of research is important because there are continuous outbreaks related to fresh produce, and tomatoes and leafy greens are what we call ‘high risk' foods," Micallef said.

The study incorporates faculty from six other universities across the country, including the University of Florida, Ohio State University and the University of California, Davis, as well as representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and two food companies — the Western Growers Association, headquartered in California, and Washington, D.C.-based United Fresh Produce Association.

These researchers will explore all aspects of crop production — growing, harvesting, handling and transporting — in different regions across the country and make recommendations to ensure the foods remain uncontaminated from the time they are planted to the time they reach the table.

The team will also analyze how elements such as water, temperature and other environmental components impact the quality of produce.

"The key thing here is doing the field-based research, going into the field and doing those experiments," researcher and assistant food science and nutrition professor Abani Pradhan said. "That's what's unique to this study … it's not just confined to the lab."

As part of the study, researchers will also develop an education component to explain their findings in K-12 and college institutions, Micallef said.

And researchers said preventing risk of infection will impact more than just the sick individuals.

"It's not just a threat to the consumer, but also there's huge economic losses that are associated with any type of outbreak," Micallef said. "The consumer is pretty much scared to eat food that might be contaminated."

But by having strict guidelines, the researchers said they hope to quell some of those fears.

"We'll have a level of confidence when you have some basis of scientific information to say, ‘OK, this is safe,' or ‘This is not safe,'" said Pradhan.

Buchanan was in Tokyo this week and could not be reached for comment.

meehan@umdbk