Rosie Niemeyer has eggplants and three different kinds of peppers coming in at her plot at Denver Urban Gardens in Commons Park — and she knows exactly where every bit of it came from.
"I know nothing goes on it. I know nobody's messing with it, I know how I planted it. I know where the seeds and the plants came from," Niemeyer said.
That peace of mind matters to her, especially after a summer marked by a string of foodborne illness outbreaks across the country.
"I pay attention to everything I eat, and where I shop, and what I put in my mouth and my family's mouth. So yeah, I'll continue that going forward," Niemeyer said.
Vanessa Villalobos, a bilingual youth engagement manager with Denver Urban Gardens, said she thinks about food safety, too.
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"I have a small child, so it is very important to think about those things. They impact especially young people and older people a lot more," Villalobos said.
When a major lettuce made headlines, Villalobos said she simply turned to what she had growing.
"When there was a really large lettuce outbreak, I had kale in my garden. That's what I was eating instead," Villalobos said.
A national cyclospora outbreak linked to lettuce has made nearly 20,000 people ill nationwide, marking the largest cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history.
Colorado ranks second in the nation for illnesses tied to Salmonella-contaminated jalapeño peppers, with at least 118 Coloradans sickened.
Danny Katz, executive director of COPIRG — the Colorado Public Interest Research Group — set up at the Denver Urban Gardens location Thursday to call attention to a federal food traceability rule that was supposed to take effect in January of this year but has since been delayed.
"We should be able to assume that the food that's on our store shelves and on our dinner plates is safe," Katz said.
Katz said the rule would help trace contaminated food back to its source and identify where it was distributed — critical steps in stopping outbreaks before they spread.
"Our big traceability rule has been delayed for more than for another two years. That's unacceptable. We can't wait two plus years to get these rules in place that could potentially help stop people from getting sick," Katz said.
COPIRG announced Thursday it is launching a campaign calling on Congress to move up the effective dates of the food traceability rule to take effect immediately.
In the meantime, Katz urged Coloradans to take steps to protect themselves at home, including washing and properly cooking food. He also recommended signing up for recall notification systems through grocery stores.
"You want to be the first to know if there's some sort of food recall, because that's going to ensure that you get that food off your dinner plates before it can make somebody in your family ill," Katz said.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it remains committed to protecting residents from foodborne illness.
"CDPHE is dedicated to protecting Coloradans from foodborne illness using the authorities and resources available to us. Investigating potential outbreaks requires extensive due diligence and close collaboration among local, state, and federal public health partners. Identifying an outbreak is a complex process that can take several weeks. It requires healthcare reporting, lab testing and genetic sequencing, patient interviews, and food exposure tracing. Because of this timeline, contaminated products are frequently no longer in circulation by the time a common source is identified," the agency said.
CDPHE added that public health agencies also work proactively to prevent illness before it occurs, with local, state, and federal regulatory teams conducting regular inspections of restaurants and food manufacturing facilities.
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