TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In the last month, more than seven million pounds of deli meat have been recalled due to a deadly listeria outbreak. The investigation has centered around a plant in Virginia, but how do you know if your food is safe?
News 6 found out there is a lab in Tallahassee that makes sure the food you buy is not going to make you sick. The Food Safety Laboratory is inside the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
“What we’re responsible for is ensuring the safety of food throughout the state of Florida, and we have about 50,000 food establishments that we are responsible for inspecting throughout the state,” said Matthew Curran, Director of Food Safety.
Curran is one of the more than 200 people who work around the clock in Florida to prevent and investigate food borne illnesses.
“We have inspectors that go out and inspect facilities to make sure that they’re operating under sanitary conditions, and then what they also do is they’ll collect random samples — whether it’s from just a surveillance type approach, or get a consumer complaint or what have you — we’ll collect food samples and then we send them into our laboratories for either biological testing or chemical testing,” Curran told News 6.
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Those facilities include dairy farms, food manufacturers and even your neighborhood grocery or convenience store.
Curran told News 6 what happens if a lettuce kit is contaminated with E. coli.
“If we do find a leafy green finished product that has some contamination, we then have to try to figure out where did that contamination come from. Did it come from some handling step in the store? Upstream? Did it come from the field? That’s oftentimes a research project in itself,” Curran said.
So how often does the lab find contamination? News 6 found out over the last two years researchers have looked at 24,361 samples. Of those samples, 949 had some sort of contamination.
| Violation Category | Percent of Samples |
|---|---|
| Heavy Metals | 3% |
| Mold | 0% |
| Hemp Extract Related | 5% |
| Coliforms | 56% |
| Pathogens | 29% |
| Pesticides | 5% |
| Sulfite | 3% |
News 6 got to see how biologists test food like hot dogs for salmonella. First, they prepared the sample, which includes blending the food together.
“We put a whole package in here, that way we can essentially test the whole sample. If there are any clusters of microbial bacteria growing here, we will be able to catch it because it will all be blended together,” said Ashlee Hubert, Biological Administrator 1.
Then, they create a breeding ground for the bacteria.
“We want to keep the sample as it was when it was collected so as you were purchasing it on the shelf. This is what we want to test to make sure that’s what you’re eating. That’s what’s safe,” said Kasia Partynski, Biological Scientist 4.
After this, scientists wait to see if the bacteria grows. This could take anywhere from 18 to 24 hours. If a bacteria, like salmonella, is detected, the sample goes to two machines to extract, then read its DNA.
“If I compared my DNA to my mom’s it would be similar because we’re related, but if you were to compare you and me it would be different. So, we can do that same thing with our pathogens,” according to Rebecca Buchwalter, Environmental Specialist 3.
The data gets put into a national database to see if this particular bacteria is linked to other outbreaks across the world.
“Like a family tree, it gets put into what’s called a phylogenetic tree,” Buchwalter said.
As for the current Boar’s Head recall, the lab was notified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Once the lab received the alert, leaders sent notice to their inspectors to make sure the contaminated food is not in stores.
“If you don’t hear from us or hear about us, you know we’re doing our jobs,” Curran said.
The team also tests the food served at big events in Florida such as the Super Bowl. Before tens of thousands of fans packed the stadiums in Miami and Tampa several years ago, Curran said state inspectors went inside to make sure everything was safe.
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