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Warnings over fresh juice
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August 26, 1997: 3:56 p.m. ET
FDA takes steps to counter dangers of non-pasteurized juice
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced new measures Tuesday designed to make fresh fruit and vegetable juices safer.
Last fall, one child died and more than 60 people in the Western United States and Canada became sick after drinking unpasteurized Odwawlla apple juice that was contaminated with the E. coli bacteria.
An FDA source says the agency will ask fresh apple juice producers whose products are not pasteurized to put warning labels on their products.
The labels would tell consumers, in time for this fall's apple cider season, that the product has not been pasteurized and may contain some pathogens. Pasteurizing juice kills bacteria, including E. coli.
E. coli can cause abdominal cramps followed by watery diarrhea that often becomes bloody. Most individuals recover within a short period of time; however, a small percentage of people develop a form of kidney failure called Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS).
The FDA says people particularly at risk from the potential dangers of unpasteurized fresh juice are children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems.
The FDA will also ask apple juice producers to start developing a plan known as HACCP, or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. The plan is intended to help identify places in processing where things can go wrong and then put measures in place to try to prevent problems before they occur.
These are considered voluntary measures proposed by the FDA until the agency develops more formal regulations.
It doesn't appear the FDA will actually require juice to be pasteurized immediately, but the agency does want fresh juice makers to take other food safety precautions to help prevent juice-related illnesses. However, when the FDA does propose formal regulations this fall, officials said the FDA will probably require producers to pasteurize all juice or use some equivalent process. 
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