Who Put Fish in My Peanut Butter? Scientists Disover Quicker Way to Test for Salmonella
Okay, so they aren’t really putting fish into the peanut butter.  The recent outbreak scandal involving salmonella in peanut butter has brought food safety to the fore.  The slowness of the FDA to identify and recall contaminated peanut butter has been widely criticized (link).  Scientists, thankfully, have come to the FDA’s aid. They have found a real life litmus test, which happens to involve fish cells, that could more cheaply and effectively test food for toxins.
Barry Estabrook, at gourmet.com, put it well when he posed the question, “You’ve heard about the canary in the coal mine, but Siamese fighting fish in a peanut butter jar?”  Scientists discovered that certain pigmented cells in Siamese fighting fish are highly reactive to some microorganisms.  When exposed to toxins like Salmonella and Clostridium botulinum, which causes botulism, the cells visibly turn a different color:
This research found that when Siamese fighting fish encounter certain stressful or threatening environmental conditions, such as exposure to toxic chemicals like mercury, the erythrophores [pigment carrying cells] change appearance, and the pigment moves in a characteristic pattern to an internal part of the cell. The change in pigment location in response to a toxic chemical is rapid, obvious and can be numerically described.
The advance could “revolutionize the food industry, improving the actual protection to consumers while avoiding the costly waste and massive recalls of products that are suspected of bacterial contamination but are perfectly safe.”
Although the process is not yet ready for commercialization, the breakthrough could potentially save many an upset stomach and $10 billion in hospital costs and lost labor. Â The scientists expect that their litmus test will not only speed up the process of illness-causing bacteria, but also expect it to make the process, well, more of an exact science. Â Because along with detecting the presence of bacteria, the exact level of their toxicity can be identified as well, depending on the amount of coloration.
However, while this quick contamination test will be a great advancement, the pigmented cells from Siamese fighting fish will not solve the inherent problem of the FDA’s inability to stem the contamination in the first place. Â According to this article, animal feces contaminated the peanut butter. Â Marion Nestle says, “Roasting the peanuts should kill Salmonella, so the contamination must have occurred later.” Â She questions the effectiveness of the supposed safety measures put in place, “Did the factory have a HACCP plan in place? If so, they must not have been paying much attention to it” (link).
To nip these food safety issues in the bud it is obvious that the FDA should be spending its time ensuring that Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) guidelines are being followed to a T.  Instead, they put millions of lives at risk by (mostly) playing catch-up after illnesses break out.  The lack of oversight is not entirely the organization’s fault.  Since the Reagan administration less and less money has been diverted toward the FDA and USDA. The funding crunches mean fewer people are on the ground doing in-person safety checks.  As it is now, the FDA relies more on the businesses themselves to monitor and report any food safety issues.
Thankfully, newly inaugurated President Barack Obama understands that food safety is an issue of national importance. Â During his campaign, Obama released a statement after a major beef recall:
When I am President, it will not be business as usual when it comes to food safety. I will provide additional resources to hire more federal food inspectors. I will also call on the Department of Agriculture to examine whether federal food safety laws need to be strengthened, in particular to provide greater protections against tainted food being used in the National School Lunch Program. Â As the parent of two young daughters, there are few issues more important to me than ensuring the safety of the food that our children consume.
For the good of our health and of our nation’s food supply, let’s hope he keeps this campaign promise.
January 22, 2009
Tags: FDA, fish, salmonella Posted in: Science & Technology
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