WFM Whole Foods Market, Inc.

By Jesse Newman and Heather Haddon 

Supermarkets are starting to look a lot more like take-out restaurants, but the explosion of prepared meals has brought new food-safety issues that even leading chains are racing to manage.

Whole Foods Market Inc., a trailblazer in the sale of fresh-cooked items, was recently forced to temporarily shutter one of its commercial kitchens producing fresh meals for stores. The move was a response to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's warning over safety gaps in the Boston-area plant.

The grocer is now overhauling its approach, including discontinuing the processing of meat, poultry and raw seafood in that kitchen and two others, according to a letter obtained through a public document request and the company.

The FDA's warning followed an E.coli outbreak last year that was linked to rotisserie chicken salad made at Costco Wholesale Corp. and sickened 19 people. Deli foods from the Boise Co-Op, a natural-foods grocer in Idaho, were also tied to a salmonella outbreak last year that sickened nearly 300 people.

The grocers' woes highlight challenges facing supermarkets competing for consumers forgoing home-cooking and traditional restaurant meals in favor of fresh offerings from sushi counters or taco bars at neighborhood grocery stores. As prepared-food offerings increase in volume and complexity, the risk of food-safety issues also grows, with supermarkets now facing safety concerns that have beset the restaurant industry for years.

Fresh prepared foods generated $15 billion in sales in supermarkets in 2005, a figure that has nearly doubled to about $28 billion last year, according to Technomic, a food industry research firm.

But while grocers have long offered fresh options from delis and salad bars, they now are selling more sophisticated meals, which require more complex cooking and serving practices.

That chicken destined for a chicken biryani dish at the hot Indian buffet? Employees must cook it to at least 165 degrees for a minimum of 15 seconds to kill bacteria like salmonella that might be living on its skin. Rice bound for a cold Mediterranean pilaf salad must be cooked to 135 degrees, then cooled for two hours to 70 degrees, and chilled for an additional four hours to 41 degrees to prevent dangerous spores from growing and contaminating food.

"Our stores have become mini restaurants and pubs," said Paul Marra, manager of food safety for Wegmans Food Markets Inc., which now runs full-service restaurants in stores offering everything from mussels to crème brûlée. "Prior to that, we basically sliced cold cuts and made a few salads."

Data on foodborne illness outbreaks linked to grocery stores is delayed and highly dependent on reporting by state health departments, according to Dr. Sam Crowe, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But according to the latest information collected by the federal agency, outbreaks linked to U.S. supermarkets more than doubled from 2014 to 2015. That year, 23 outbreaks sickened 572 people and hospitalized 42 of them.

Salmonella was the most common outbreak tied to stores, followed by norovirus. Outbreaks stemmed from everything from ribs to chocolate mousse.

Amber Howard, a 36-year-old Boise resident, said she became seriously ill from a salmonella infection after eating meals made at the Co-op last year, and ultimately developed arthritis, among other ailments. "It's been a horrible year," said Ms. Howard, who is in settlement talks with the grocer.

The Co-op closed its deli for several days after that outbreak. It cleaned, retrained employees and color-coded cutting boards to prevent cross-contamination. A spokeswoman said the company wants to be "a model" for other co-ops.

While foodborne illness outbreaks tied to restaurants far exceed those at grocery stores, experts say that gap could narrow as more supermarkets jump into prepared foods.

Among the biggest concerns stem from employees mishandling prepared food or not washing their hands while working with it, said Robert Powitz, a Connecticut health officer and forensic sanitarian. In New York state, nearly a third of the 15,600 violations at grocery stores in the past year involved prepared foods, according to an analysis of latest available state Department of Agriculture statistics. Of those, 221 violations involved employees' mishandling prepared food or handwashing.

To head off problems, grocers are ramping up employee training. The International Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association has logged 6,465 completed online food-safety courses taken by grocery workers through the end of August, up from a total of 2,987 for all of 2015.

But high attrition rates among employees can be a problem at supermarkets, as is motivating busy employees to adhere to ever-changing food-safety standards.

For Whole Foods, its trouble started last year after it recalled batches of its curry chicken and classic deli pasta salads from East Coast stores after products made in its Massachusetts plant tested positive for a dangerous form of listeria during a routine inspection of the facility. FDA inspectors documented around two-dozen problems with the grocer's food handling over five visits in February.

The grocer closed its kitchen for two days to conduct a deep clean, among other steps, according to the letter it wrote to regulators. A Whole Foods spokeswoman said the company had a positive meeting with the FDA in August to discuss the measures taken. The FDA declined to comment.

Eliminating meat handling at its commercial kitchens in Boston, Atlanta and Maryland will help keep food safe, according to Ken Meyer, the company's executive vice president of operations. Still, he said of threats like listeria: "Does it keep me up at night? Of course."

Write to Jesse Newman at jesse.newman@wsj.com and Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 08, 2016 14:24 ET (18:24 GMT)

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