An Open Letter To The Unpasteurized Apple Juice/Cider Industry

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Laurie Girand
Safe Tables Our Priority

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Dear Parents and Friends,

To protect your child from potential poisoning by E. coli O157:H7 this fall, please read the letter below. PLEASE FORWARD IT to other parents and parent groups and organizations that would find it valuable. If you would like to encourage the FDA to require mandatory labeling on unpasteurized juice, please open up the form at http://www.fda.gov/comments.html and let them know.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE UNPASTEURIZED APPLE JUICE/CIDER INDUSTRY

Given both the press and industry education campaigns regarding apple cider practices, we believe that the unpasteurized apple cider Industry is now aware of the facts:

1) E. coli O157:H7 attacks children, seniors, and the immune impaired, including pregnant women and otherwise healthy adults on antibiotics, with particular virulence. Complications in the at-risk groups are severe, starting with rampant diarrhea and stomach cramps likened to labor pains and proceeding to a blood poisoning that attacks all organs of the body, causing the kidneys to fail first and potentially leading to brain damage, heart failure, coma or death. Because there is no cure, medical treatment is merely supportive. Those who recover initially are at risk of life threatening complications subsequently. In short, the disease severely sickens and can injure and kill its victims.

2) E. coli O157:H7 contamination in raw apple juice/cider has been identified as the source of four separate epidemics, three of which occured in the fall of 1996 alone. According to Dr. Patricia Griffin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Sporadic cases are probably common but unrecognized."

3) E. coli O157:H7 lives in the intestines of healthy cattle, sheep and deer. It is believed that these animals and their fecal matter in the vicinity of apple growing or processing facilities can result in contamination.

4) E. coli O157:H7 is a pathogen that has only recently emerged as a disease-causing organism . Thus, industry practices that were acceptable for decades can now in the 1990's result in contamination that is potentially deadly to the at-risk groups. Consumers who grew up drinking apple cider without risk from E. coli O157:H7 may now be at risk.

5) Using apples that are dropped on the ground and unpotable water are only the most likely ways for fruit/juice to become contaminated. Washing and brushing apples prior to juicing and applying known antimicrobials such as chlorine and phosphoric acid did not prevent the identified outbreaks. In one of the known outbreaks, the apples came from a commercial source that did not use drop apples.

6) Some members of the unpasteurized apple cider industry consider it acceptable to use dropped apples in producing cider, despite the risk of contamination.

7) Even with HACCP and quality control standards, the only process used today to ensure that apple juice does not contain pathogenic bacteria is pasteurization. Thus, no unpasteurized product can truly be free of microbial contamination.

8) The Processed Apples Institute and Apple Processors Association, industry associations that consist of producers, bottlers and distributors of pasteurized juices, have both recommended that the FDA require mandatory pasteurization.

9) On August 28, 1997, the FDA released a Notice of Intent stating: "Given the severity of the outbreaks with fresh apple juice that occurred during the 1996 season, the agency strongly encourages processors of unpasteurized apple juices to immediately and voluntarily label their products or provide point of purchase information with any of the model statements or a similar statement that includes the essential elements discussed...Such labeling may be accomplished by use of stickers, placards, brochures, etc." One example the FDA gives of an appropriate warning label is: "WARNING: This product has not been pasteurized and therefore may contain harmful bacteria which can cause serious illness in children, elderly, and persons with weakened immune systems."

10) It is clear that some members of your industry are not advising consumers of the above facts.

You may not be aware that research conducted by the Processed Apples Institute has indicated that "Although they know that pasteurization does something to apple juice, most consumers are probably not quite sure what that might be." Thus, merely labeling a juice with the word "Unpasteurized" is like posting a sign at the beach that says "Carcharodon carcharias in water." To the average person, this would seem to be harmless enough, unless the person knew that C. carcharias is the great white shark.

Therefore, we IMPLORE you, in the names of the children that have already suffered and been injured drinking unpasteurized apple juice/cider, to inform parents of the risk of E. coli O157:H7 contamination and the deadly complications that can result from it prior to selling cider to them. We ask only that you tell parents what you yourselves know so that no more children are accidentally poisoned by unpasteurized apple juice because their parents were unaware of the risks, as we were.

Laurie Girand
Mother of Unpasteurized Apple Juice Victim
Board Member
S.T.O.P. -- Safe Tables Our Priority

Safe Tables Our Priority is a consumer advocacy/education association consisting of friends and families of victims of foodborne illness. We have been working to ensure that no parent poisons his or her child through unpasteurized apple juice, as we did, without knowing the risks. For more information on foodborne illness or S.T.O.P., please see our website at http://www.stop-usa.org.