Health department reaffirms its E. coli suspicions

While the Michigan Department of Community Health targeted iceberg lettuce from Aunt Mid’s Produce Co. as the cause of last month’s statewide E. coli outbreak, the company has yet to confirm any responsibility.

Dominic Riggio, the president of Aunt Mid’s, said the Detroit-based food distributor has fully cooperated with the health department and Michigan Department of Agriculture’s investigation.

“We have opened our facility and all of our products to all of the state departments to cooperate with this investigation,” Riggio said. “All environmental tests and all product sampling has come back negative for E. coli.”

As of Thursday, the health department had confirmed 34 cases of E. coli in the state, including nine at MSU.

Riggio said the health and agriculture departments have tested food samples from the company as well as from outbreak locations such as the Lenawee County Jail, where five of the cases were reported, and all tests have been negative. He said the state departments also have conducted tests of the company’s facilities, which came back negative.

In addition, Riggio said Aunt Mid’s has utilized third-party inspections of its food and facilities, which have shown no link between the company and the outbreak.

James McCurtis, a spokesperson for the health department, said tests are only one part of an investigation to determine where the lettuce originated. He said Aunt Mid’s is still suspected because its lettuce is the only kind delivered to the Lenawee County Jail and the two restaurants in Illinois where the virus was also found.

Because the shelf life of lettuce is short, McCurtis said Aunt Mid’s could conduct negative tests now but still be responsible for distributing the affected lettuce last month.

“It doesn’t take away from the fact that in early September, people were sick and they were all linked to lettuce from Aunt Mid’s,” McCurtis said.

Riggio said Aunt Mid’s doesn’t directly sell to the Lenawee County Jail or MSU. He said the company sells to other distributors that in turn sell to the jail and MSU. However, he said Aunt Mid’s isn’t the only lettuce vendor that supplies the jail and thus can’t be assumed responsible as McCurtis said.

Jennifer Holton, a spokeswoman for the agriculture department, confirmed all tests of Aunt Mid’s products had come back negative. She said, however, there remains strong evidence pointing to lettuce that came through Aunt Mid’s but tests were ongoing.

“Aunt Mid’s is a common supplier of industrialized-sized iceberg lettuce,” she said. “Essentially the food distribution system is like a spider web and we’re trying to find a very tiny needle in whole big haystack. We’re looking at everything from farm to fork.”

Published on Sunday, October 5, 2008