Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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FST Department Head Honored

Susan Sumner , Department Head of Food Science and Technology, was honored as a Fellow of the Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) during the annual meeting of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges in New York City in November. She was recognized for her accomplishments in completing the two-year (2005-2007) FSLI leadership development program, as well as for her contributions to the college and the broader higher education and food systems.

The Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) offers leadership development to upper-level leaders in higher education, government, and industry to prepare them to meet the leadership challenges and opportunities of the future.  The Institute is dedicated to developing individual and institutional leadership for a 21 st Century food system.  The program curriculum focuses on a series of core leadership competencies and three complementary threads: individual leadership; leading change within organizations; and understanding and influencing complex, diverse food systems.  This curriculum lays the groundwork for leaders who will transition food systems research, education, and outreach to broader, more holistic approaches.        

The boundaries and definitions for the food system are continually expanding. What was once seen simply as food production and distribution has grown to encompass nutrition, medicine, biotechnology, the environment, rural communities, and a host of emerging issues surrounding a complex system. Rapid changes in global economics and politics only emphasize the need to expand traditional food systems thinking.

  FSLI is a program of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) with support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation . 

The University of North Carolina System , through the UNC Leadership Institute, is the primary host institution, responsible for program implementation and hosting FSLI scholars during one of their three onsite sessions.  The Ohio State University and University of Vermont are also partners in the FSLI, providing their expertise in leadership and food systems to the FSLI curriculum and hosting onsite sessions for FSLI participants. 

HOT TOPICS AND DAIRY ISSUES

Dairy Linked to Three Deaths, Miscarriage

The fifth-generation owners of Whittier Farms dairy have been proud of the quality of their Holstein cows and still deliver milk right to your door, in glass bottles.

However, since June, three elderly men and two pregnant women have been diagnosed with Listeriosis. The three elderly men have died. DNA testing on the patients showed they carried the same strain of Listeria , suggesting a common source. After the test results came back in mid-December, health officials began interviewing the patients and their families, hoping to zero in on the source.

A health worker at the hospital where an 88-year-old man was diagnosed with listeriosis learned that the man had had unpasteurized cider and coffee-flavored pasteurized milk. When both drinks were tested, only the pasteurized milk — from Whittier Farms — came back positive. Officials then found Listeria in an unopened container at the dairy's store in Shrewsbury .

A pregnant, 34-year-old woman recovered but suffered a miscarriage. Another pregnant woman, 31, contracted Listeriosis from Whittier Farms milk. She recovered, and delivered a healthy child.

One environmental swab, one sample of skim milk and seven flavored milk samples tested positive for the same strain of Listeria found in four of the five cases linked to this outbreak. No sample was available to test in the fifth case linked to the outbreak.

Listeria outbreak linked to milk products produced at Whittier Farms represents the first such foodborne outbreak connected to a Massachusetts food processing plant in more than 20 years.

The processing plant, located in Shrewsbury , 35 miles west of Boston , MA remains closed and will not re-open until cleared to do so by the MDPH Food Protection Program and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Regional Milk Specialists.

More than 100 environmental and milk samples were taken from the processing plant as part of the investigation. A total of 12 milk samples and 4 environmental samples tested positive for Listeria . The findings do not pinpoint where the contamination of the milk occurred, but they do suggest that Listeria bacteria colonized somewhere in the processing plant and that the bacteria entered the milk products at some point during the production process. Records indicate that the plant's equipment met federal standards for time, temperature and flow for effective pasteurization; however, pasteurization at the processing plant will be further examined.

The dairy distributes milk under various brand names to homes and stores across central Massachusetts .

Health officials say about 2,500 serious Listeriosis cases are reported in the United States every year, 20 to 40 of them in Massachusetts . Symptoms include fever, nausea and diarrhea.

Listeria can cause serious illness or death in pregnant women, newborns, the elderly and patients with compromised immune systems. Healthy adults and children generally recover.

The presence of Listeria in the physical plant of the facility is consistent with contamination occurring during post-pasteurizing processing and bottling. One theory under consideration by health officials is that cleaning activities at the plant may have unintentionally caused contamination of the processing equipment allowing bacteria to enter the finished milk products. Three of the 4 positive environmental tests for Listeria were collected from sections of the plant that are considered part of the post-pasteurization areas of the facility.

Public health investigators are also closely scrutinizing the lab results from Whittier milk products to determine why most of the Listeria positive milk samples were found in flavored milk products. Health officials theorize that the sugar content of the flavored milk products provided an environment that enhanced bacterial growth.

Health officials stressed the risk to public health remains low because Whittier Farms halted milk processing operations immediately after being informed by the MDPH about the link to the current outbreak. They also emphasized that an outbreak of Listeria in pasteurized milk products is extremely rare; the source of the outbreak appears to be confined to the Whittier Farms milk processing plant; and they believe the general milk supply is safe.

The MDPH staff continues to work with Whittier Farms on the investigation and will work with the Farm's management on a recovery plan for the Shrewsbury processing plant. Milk processing will not take place until efforts to eradicate the bacteria at the plant are complete, and testing has confirmed that milk products produced at the facility are safe.