We have previously discussed a series developed by FDA last year of Prevention Strategies to Enhance Food Safety.  Prevention Strategy documents contain recommendations for the prevention of future foodborne illness for food-hazard pairings where emerging patterns can be identified and targeted.  The first two Prevention Strategy documents were: (1) Bulb Onion Strategy Document (July 2022) targeting Salmonella contamination of bulb onions, and (2) Imported Enoki and Imported Wood Ear Mushroom Strategy Document (September 2022) targeting Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella contamination of imported specialty mushrooms. 

A third Prevention Strategy document has since been released.  Powdered Infant Formula Strategy Outline (November 2022) targets the prevention of Cronobacter sakazaki illnesses associated with consumption of powdered infant formula, and seeks to:

• Broaden scientific knowledge and understanding of Cronobacter sakazakii and public health interventions for controlling it;

• Improve oversight of safe production of powdered infant formula; and

• Enhance communications and engagement with industry, consumers, federal, state, local, and other public health partners about infant formula safety. 

FDA’s Prevention Strategy Documents table will likely soon be updated again to add an additional resource for enoki mushrooms.  Specifically, on March 1, 2023, FDA announced the expansion of a country wide import alert (IA) for enoki mushrooms from the Republic of Korea, noted earlier as a resource for the Prevention Strategy document, to also cover enoki mushrooms from China.  The expanded IA #25-21 “Detention Without Physical Examination of Enoki Mushrooms from the Republic of Korea and China due to Listeria Monocytogenes” follows multiple recalls linked to contaminated enoki mushrooms from China and a recent FDA multi-state outbreak investigation that linked three cases of listeriosis to enoki mushrooms labeled as a product of China.