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More Food Safety Measures from the USDA

May 13, 2010 by

On Monday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced new performance standards to reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter in young chickens (broilers) and turkeys, which aims to fulfill a key recommendation of the President’s Food Safety Working Group. The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also released a compliance guide to help the poultry industry address Salmonella and Campylobacter and a compliance guide on known practices for pre-harvest management to reduce E coli O157:H7 contamination in cattle.

After 2 years under the new standards, the FSIS estimates that 39,000 illnesses will be avoided each year under the new Campylobacter standards, and 26,000 fewer illnesses will occur each year under the revised Salmonella standards.

“There is no more important mission at USDA than ensuring the safety of our food, and we are working every day as part of the President’s Food Safety Working Group to lower the danger of foodborne illness,” said Vilsack. “The new standards announced today mark an important step in our efforts to protect consumers by further reducing the incidence of Salmonella and opening a new front in the fight against Campylobacter.”—Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack

The standards announced on Monday are the first-ever standards for Campylobacter and mark the first revision to the Salmonella standards for chicken since 1996 and for turkeys since the first standards were set in 2005. The performance standards set a level in percentage of samples testing positive for a given pathogen an establishment must achieve and play a key role in reducing the prevalence of foodborne pathogens and preventing harm to consumers. The President’s Food Safety Working Group has set a goal of having 90% of all poultry establishments meeting the revised Salmonella standard by the end of 2010.

Monday’s announcement builds on the series of steps to enhance food safety taken by the USDA over the past year as part of the Food Safety Working Group, including:

  • launching an initiative to cut down E coli O157:H7 contamination, including stepped-up meat facility inspections by starting the testing of additional components of ground beef and issuing new instructions to inspectors asking that they verify that plants follow sanitary practices in processing beef carcasses;
  • appointing a chief medical officer within the FSIS to coordinate human health issues within the USDA and FSIS and build bridges with the public health community and senior leaders throughout the federal, state, and local sectors to establish a consistent approach and heighten food safety awareness;
  • issuing consolidated, more effective field instructions on how to inspect for E coli O157:H7 contamination; and
  • continuing to develop the Public Health Information System (PHIS) to help the USDA more rapidly and accurately identify trends, patterns, and anomalies in data and thus allow us to more efficiently, effectively, and rapidly protect public health.

By revising current performance standards and setting new ones, the FSIS is encouraging establishments to make continued improvement in the occurrence and level of pathogens in the products they produce. FSIS developed the stricter performance standards using recently completed studies that measure the baseline prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter in young chicken (broiler) and turkey carcasses nationwide.

“Preventing foodborne illness is the core mission of the Food Safety and Inspection Service,” said Jerold Mande, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety. “We welcome comments on today’s announcement.”

Comments regarding the compliance guides document must be received within the 60 day comment period through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. All submissions received through the Federal eRulemaking Portal must reference the FSIS and include the docket number “FSIS-2009-0034.”

My two cents? I applaud the President for making food safety a priority, but I find it sad that attention to this issue has been sorely lacking by both the USDA (who has jurisdiction over meat and poultry) and US Food and Drug Administration (who has jurisdiction over most everything else we eat) for a long time now.

I hope that these new standards do lead to a reduction in Salmonella and Campylobacter outbreaks, but you can also do your part to keep your family safe:

1. Practice food safety at home. Keep yourself informed about food recalls and alerts, learn how to prevent food poisoning from bacteria and viruses, and get tips and techniques to keep specific foods safe at www.foodsafety.gov/.

2. Eat local. Locally-produced food travels through less hands and machines during preparation, packaging, and shipment. It also travels far fewer miles to the point of sale. Both of these factors mean that there are a lot less opportunities for local food to become contaminated.

I bet you knew I’d get the local thing in there somewhere, didn’t you?

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Enhancing Food Safety: My Two Cents

March 25, 2010 by

“We are a nation built on the strength of individual initiative. But there are certain things that we can’t do on our own. There are certain things that only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat … are safe and don’t cause us harm.”
—President Barack Obama, March 14, 2009

I received an e-mail yesterday from the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announcing that it is seeking comment on proposed measures to enhance food safety. The proposed rule would implement a provision of the 2008 Farm Bill and is a priority for the President’s Food Safety Working Group (FSWG), which was formed in June 2009.

“One year ago the President called on government to do more to ensure our food is safe, and we are working aggressively every day to improve the food safety system in the United States,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “The steps we are announcing [today] will help prevent foodborne illness as well as speed our response when illnesses occur—two goals of the Food Safety Working Group.”

One of the componenets of the new proposed rule would require that “regulated establishments promptly notify FSIS if any unsafe, unwholesome, or misbranded meat or poultry product has entered commerce.” Hmm, I bet their definition of “unwholesome” is WAY different than mine, but that’s a whole ‘nother post.

One of the reasons I choose to eat locally is because of food safety issues. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in April 2009 that according to preliminary data from 2008, a long-term decline in foodborne illness appears to be stalling. The agency concluded that “the lack of recent progress points to gaps in the current food safety system and the need to continue to develop and evaluate food safety practices as food moves from the farm to the table.”

Just how did our food supply become so unsafe? The President’s Food Safety Working Group chalks it up to four main factors, all of which I agree with:

  • new disease agents and intentional contamination;
  • an increasingly globalized food supply chain;
  • changes in the US population;
  • and new dietary patterns (ie, the fact that approximately 50 cents of every food dollar is now spent on food prepared outside the home in restaurants, vending machines, movie theaters, and schools).

I don’t think there is much we as individuals can do about intentional contamination of our food supply or the overall changes in the US population, but there is a lot we can do to address the issues that arise from both our ever increasing globalized food supply chain and the modern food conveniences (ie, TV dinners, “eating on the go” from vending machines or fast food restaurants, “prewashed” bags of leafy greens, etc, etc, etc) that are supposed to make our lives easier.

Speaking of the global food supply, did you know that about half of the fresh fruit eaten in America is grown outside of the country? While these imports do allow you to enjoy your favorite produce year-round, that’s not necessarily a good thing. In addition to the environmental issues that stem from food traveling that far, you cannot be sure about how the food was grown or what it was exposed to on its travels to your supermarket. Buying from local growers alleviates many of these concerns for me. (Image above from the California Department of Food & Agriculture; it’s a bit hard to read, but you get the picture.)

The rise of modern food conveniences have also had many consequences for food safety. The biggest issue for me is that many of the ingredients used in these “convenient” foods are grown or raised in mass amounts (see CAFO if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and processed a zillion different ways, all of which increase the chance of contamination with Salmonella and E coli O157:H7. I’m sure we all remember the huge 2006 E coli outbreak in spinach, right? Again, by choosing local, I feel much better about the safety of my food. (Image above from the Environmental Protection Agency.)

So, is local food safer? I would make the argument that it is because 1) it travels through less hands and machines during preparation, packaging, and shipment, and 2) it travels far less miles to the point of sale. Therefore, there are a lot less opportunities for local food to become contaminated. But hey, that’s just my two cents.

P.S. If you would like to have your voice heard about the new proposed measures to enhance food safety, comments can be made through the Federal eRulemaking Portal by May 24, 2010. All submissions received through the Federal eRulemaking Portal or by mail must reference the Food Safety and Inspection Service and include the docket number “FSIS-2008-0025.”

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And The List Goes On …

January 31, 2009 by

So, my “real job” is in the medical publishing industry, and because of this, I subscribe to a zillion healthcare-related newsletters to stay abreast of what’s going on in medicine … and I’ve been inundated with all of the peanut-related recall notices that flood my inbox each day.

On January 12th, the FDA, the CDC, the USDA, and public health officials began investigating an ongoing, multi-state outbreak of human salmonella infections, which suggested peanut butter as a likely source.

On January 16th, they traced the likely source of salmonella to a Georgia plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), which manufactures peanut butter and peanut paste, a concentrated product consisting of ground, roasted peanuts.

The peanut butter sold by PCA is distributed in bulk containers ranging in size from 5 to 1,700 pounds, and the peanut paste is sold in sizes ranging from 35-pound containers to product sold by the tanker container.

Neither of these products are sold directly to consumers, but the FDA has determined that PCA distributed potentially contaminated product to more than 100 consignee firms, for use as an ingredient in hundreds of different products, such as cookies, crackers, cereal, candy, ice cream, and dog biscuits. The FDA also determined that some of the peanut butter was distributed in bulk to large institutions, such as nursing homes and hospitals.

PCA recalled all peanut butter produced on or after August 8, 2008, and all peanut paste produced on or after September 26, 2008, in Georgia plant, but recently they expanded the recall to include all peanuts and peanut products processed in the Georgia facility since January 1, 2007. The expanded recall includes all peanuts (dry and oil roasted), granulated peanuts, peanut meal, peanut butter, and peanut paste.

A full list of recall products can be found here, and the FDA has created a searchable database for these products, which can be found at here.

The lastest news from the FDA confirms that the source of the salmonella outbreak was the peanut butter and peanut paste produced at PCA’s Georgia plant, and there is no evidence to suggest that the salmonella contamination originated with any manufacturing facility other than PCA.

The Georgia plant has been shut down, but a history of unsanitary conditions and salmonella contamination has come to light (a complete list of problems observed by FDA investigators during their inspection has been issued) … and possibly the worst news of all is that the company knowingly distributed contaminated peanut butter 12 times in the past 2 years.
This article from The Washington Post that details the history of inspection at the PCS plant in Georgia is an eye-opener … and it reinforces that fact that we should all know exactly where our food comes from.

But, while I try to buy local as much as humanly possible, living in the Midwest means that I have to occasionally shop at a grocery store for some cooking and baking staples … and Heather at Simple – Green – Frugal says just what I’ve been thinking:

“There has to be a happy medium here. Most of our foods should, I think, come from local sources (because they are healthier for us and the environment that way). But I also think that we should be able to enjoy some of the foods we consider staples without worrying about mercury, salmonella, and all those other “nasties” that make their way into our food supply. What about rice, whole wheat flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt? For some of us, a few of these things might be local, but most of us can’t go 100% local without giving up baking entirely. Is it possible to find a happy medium between a local diet and nutrient-dense, environmentally responsible, but manufactured food?”

So, dear readers, is it?

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