Kirk Smith and The Case of the Crappy National Food Trough

A salmonella outbreak that has sickened over 400 people in 42 states (no deaths) has been traced to an industrial-sized tub of peanut butter, and, once again, it’s the Minnesota Department of Health notching another solved outbreak in its belt. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Officials from the state Department of Health said late Friday that the salmonella bacteria found in 30 Minnesotans believe to have been sickened by eating King Nut brand creamy peanut butter has the same genetic fingerprint as the salmonella bacteria found in 400 sick people in 42 states.

 and

Kirk Smith [pictured here] , supervisor of food-borne diseases at the state Department of Health, said the clue in this outbreak was that many of the Minnesotans who became ill had eaten in institutional settings. That included nursing homes, schools and colleges, he said.

Specifically, they were eating peanut butter from the wittily named King Nut which distributes peanut butter for the much less wittily named Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), whose presser, at their website, is already laying down the company’s legal defense:

The only conclusive testing linking salmonella to PCA’s product was done on an open container of the peanut butter in a large, institutional kitchen. The history of the handling of that open container is unknown at this time.

Ooo, good one. Right up there with the dog ate my homework. Look, with outbreak sleuth Kirk Smith on your case, who’s telling the media he has a genetic match with the 400+ other salmonella cases, that defense is Big L on the Forehead Lame. If that’s your story, it looks like you’re gonna be sizzling and sweating till the bitter end, nut boy.

But who’s Kirk Smith, you wonder?

Who’s Kirk Smith? Who’s Kirk Smith?? You might as well know this about your humble blogger that he is a bit of an epidemiologist fanboy, and Kirk Smith is building a Sam Spade-style rep in the eyes of El Dragón for solving The Case of the Slimy Pepper, The Case of the Funky Chicken, and The Case of the Sam’s Club Shitburger — all within the last 2 years.

Impressive, yes. We’re lucky to have him. But that’s a whole lotta food borne outbreaks, don’t you think? Might be easy to pin that on Minnesota, but it’s not the state, of course – Minnesota just happens to have the crack team of sleuths for spotting microbial nasties. No, the real problem here (I hesitate to overwork the detective metaphor and say criminal) is the negligent, national food system. Because of the size and scope of our national and international food trough, these types of outbreaks are simply part of the cost of doing food industry business — like good defense attorneys and paying insurance.

I don’t glibly mentione insurance. After all, some of the biggest barriers to creating robust local/regional systems are, ironically, the very insurance companies covering institutions like hospitals, where Kirk Smith found the salmonella-tainted tub of peanut butter. Incredibly, many insurance companies go out of their way to stipulate that hospitals should avoid purchasing local foods because they’re deemed unsafe. Gah! This is so bloody ignorant, El Dragón wants to fight somebody right now! The history and numbers in recent outbreaks simply don’t support that stance — check out the list of  food-borne outbreaks at Wikipedia and see how many national companies have been hit with recalls in the last 8 years alone (I can vouch for this list — it’s representative, though, and not exhaustive). Conagra. Topps Meat. Taco Bell. Pilgrims Pride. Sure, we can certainly point to small food producers who have problems, like the small dairy I mentioned a couple days ago, but, if they tried their damndest, small farmers could never sicken as many people as our megaproducers routinely do.

I’d love to see governors work with state epidemiologists to create progressive food legislation that cuts through this ridiculous crap. Seattle’s bold local foods initiative (passed last year) has it right, specifying this very problem by promising to "Support strategies to connect major institutions, such as schools, hospitals, and jails, to locally grown food."

Without progressive legislation like this, we’re going to see more outbreaks, more sick people, and a need for more food-borne disease epidemiologists. Despite my admiration for Kirk Smith’s incredible work, I’d like to see him put out of business.