New rules target green onions, are tougher than in U.S.
By Diane Lindquist
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 15, 2005
MEXICALI — After the deadly hepatitis A outbreak linked to Baja California green onions a year and a half ago, Mexico has imposed an unprecedented food safety program that far exceeds practices in the United States.
“If you’re going to grow onions in Baja California, you’re going to do it right,” said Baja California Agriculture Secretary Juan Pablo Hern*ndez.
The program, which started in spring, requires Baja California growers and packers who export green onions to the United States to be certified as having good food safety practices. Among the new rules that solely target Baja California green onions are state inspections of living and working conditions in the state’s fields and packaging sheds.
It’s Mexico’s first mandatory food safety certification program.
In the United States, the federal government’s guidelines for all crops are voluntary and do not require inspections.

Mexican officials and growers hope the program will restore the reputation of the region that supplies most of the green onions, or scallions, eaten by U.S. consumers. According to the U.S. government, 87 percent of the U.S. fresh green onion supply comes from Baja California and from fields around San Luis Colorado in neighboring Sonora.
The region suffered a blow in late 2003 when U.S. agents revealed that green onions implicated in widespread hepatitis A outbreaks in the eastern United States were linked to four Baja California and Sonora farm and packing operations.
“It was a scare,” said Mexicali grower Mario Cota Jr. “But now everyone’s improving.”
Three people died in November and December 2003 after consuming a “hepatitis stew” of tainted onions that was served in mild salsa and other dishes at a Chi Chi’s restaurant in Pennsylvania.
It was one of the largest individual hepatitis outbreaks in the United States. Another person died in North Carolina, and hundreds of people in the eastern United States were sickened by the virus, which attacks the liver.
Mexican officials immediately shut down the four operations but complained that the region was being unfairly targeted because no proof existed that the contamination originated in Baja California.
U.S. officials maintained that the hepatitis A virus, which spreads through fecal matter, was identical or very similar to strains found along the U.S.-Mexico border.
During an inspection of the Baja California operations with Mexican agents, the U.S. officials identified numerous conditions that could have promoted contamination.
The Dos M Sales de Mexico operation near La Rumorosa was considered particularly deficient.
According to Food and Drug Administration reports recently obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request, human and animal waste was spilling into a pond that provided water for the growing and packaging processes.
“The pond is unprotected and is accessible to livestock or for use as a dumping/disposal site for human sewage,” the report stated. ” . . . Evidence of both cattle and horse manure were observed on the ground around the pond.”
Baja California food safety officials said the U.S. owner, Mike Brazeel of Arizona, has since changed the business’s name to Madison Produce and is operating it out of San Luis Colorado.
Joe Baca, FDA food safety compliance director, said the agency was unaware of the change in name and location but that it plans to investigate. The agency’s Import Alert, which bans certain products from the United States, still remains for the Dos M Sales operation, prohibiting it from shipping produce to the U.S.
The alert also holds for Agricola La Laguna and Tecnoagro International. It was lifted for Agroindustrias Vigor when owner Manuel Valladolid proved to inspectors on a visit last July that he had addressed earlier problems.
Although the output of the three implicated operators represented a small share of the area’s production, the hepatitis scare affected all 26 operators who grow scallions in Baja California and in the San Luis Colorado area.
Between mid-November and mid-December 2003, prices fell 72 percent, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture study of the case.
For the last two weeks of November 2003, the USDA study said, estimated losses for the Mexican growers totaled $10.5 million. Operators suffered additional losses when fields went unharvested due to the drop in demand. From the last part of November through December, more than 900 acres were left unharvested.
“Everybody learned the lesson that you only need to be implicated to be hurt,” said Hern*ndez, the agriculture secretary.
The new certification program applies solely to Baja California green onions, which is the state’s biggest crop. But Hern*ndez said the plan is likely to be extended to other crops in the future.
Ironically, the program might have more impact on the region’s green onion operations than the hepatitis outbreaks.
“Everybody’s trying to get certification. But you can’t get it in one season,” said Cesar Arechiga, owner of Agricola La Grana, which he said meets even more stringent rules to export to Britain.
Growers who want to continue exporting have no choice but to conform to the mandated food safety practices.
The Baja California government and the federal Servicio Nacional de Sanidad, Inocuidad y Calidad Agroalimentaria, together with area growers, approved the export protocol last July.
The practices are based largely on Food and Drug Administration guidelines for minimizing microbial contamination, but with more specific requirements.
“There’s been a big change already,” said Fausto Valle Gutierrez of Baja California’s Comite Estatal de Sanidad Vegetal, the agency charged with the inspections. “People are being a lot more careful in the fields and packing houses.”
Growers had to apply for certification by the end of last October. By then, nearly 20 percent had met the requirements and been certified, according to the USDA study containing the latest available figures. An additional 38 percent had submitted paperwork and were awaiting certification.
A group of small producers was not yet ready to apply for the program.
“For many growers,” the USDA study said, “developing adequate food safety practices over such a short period of time was not possible.”
The cost is expensive. Mexican growers who have implemented the good food safety practices in recent years have spent about $700,000 to $2.5 million on new water systems and packaging operations.
“Some might decide to stop exporting. Some growers with packing houses might find it too costly to comply with the new requirements, and they might end up making arrangements with other firms to pack their green onions,” the study said. “This will make it more difficult for smaller growers.”
U.S. growers, who do not produce a significant amount of the crop, are closely watching Baja California’s mandatory program, said Kathy Means, spokeswoman for the Produce Marketing Association.
Still, the USDA study notes, it is tough to totally control outbreaks of microbial diseases.
“Even growers with the best food safety practices may still have contaminated product,” the study said. “All sources of risk cannot be controlled.”
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Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com