Food Safety from Farm to Table: A National Food Safety Initiative
Action: Based on a report to the President
Dated: May 12, 1997
Summary
On May 12, 1997, Vice President Al Gore announced a five point administration plan to strengthen and improve food safety for the American people. The plan sets forth new steps that the Administration will take this year to strengthen food safety and details how the $43.2 million appropriation will be used in fiscal year 1998.
The goal of this initiative is to further reduce the incidence of foodborne illness to the greatest extent feasible. The recommendations are based on the public health principles that the public and private sector should identify and take preventative measures to reduce the risk of illness. Collectively, we should focus our efforts on hazards that present the greatest risk, and should make the best use of public and private resources. The Initiative seeks to increase collaboration between public and private organizations and to improve coordination within the government to reach the common goal of improving the safety of the nation's food supply.
Six agencies in the Federal Government have primary responsibility for Food Safety; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS), USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the USDA Cooperative State Research\Education Service (USDA-CSREES) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Early Warning System for Foodborne Disease Surveillance
The primary objective of the American System of Public Health is to prevent disease before it occurs. America needs an effective early warning system that can detect and stop out-breaks before they spread. Such a system would advance the understanding of foodborne illness and help in prevention efforts.
The current public health system in the United States has limited means to identify and track the cause of foodborne illness. To enhance and expand foodborne disease active surveillance;
  • Increase from five to eight the FoodNet active surveillance sentinel sites.
  • Enhance early detection of foodborne disease nationwide.
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The early warning system will enhance improved detection of foodborne disease, to do this the plan calls for;
  • Modernization of public health laboratories.
  • Creation of national electronic network for the comparison of organisms.
  • Increased national surveillance for anti-microbial resistance of foodborne pathogens.
  • Conduct surveillance of human pathogens in food in animal populations and enhance oversight of animal feed stuffs, feeds and manures.
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Interstate Outbreak Containment & Response Coordination
FDA, CDC, USDA, and EPA are all charged with the responsibility of responding to outbreaks of foodborne illness. All states and many local governments share responsibility with the Federal Government for response to such outbreaks. When an outbreak occurs all the relevant entities must work together to efficiently and effectively prevent deaths and minimize the number of illnesses. The better coordinated the response the more quickly the outbreak will be contained.
Companies responsible for affected products also a have a critical role to play. Food companies are sometimes the first to recognize that their product is causing illness. In addition, food product recalls are voluntary, although FDA may request a company to recall products. Federal and state agencies can benefit from industry expertise about food products and their distribution patterns.
  • Improve outbreak containment through better federal, state, local coordination of the evaluation of, and response to, the foodborne illness. All interested parties will establish an intergovernmental group called the Foodborne Outbreak Response Coordinating Group (FORCG), to improve the approach to interstate outbreaks of foodborne illness.
  • Enhance state and local infrastructure for foodborne outbreak detection evaluation and response coordination.
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Risk Assessment
Risk assessment provides a strong foundation upon which efficient allocation of scarce food safety resources can be made. While obvious severe hazards of the food supply will be addressed, risk assessment provides an objective foundation upon which efficient allocation of scarce food safety resources can be established. Furthermore, risk assessment plays a central role in the development of any science-based system of preventative controls.
The recommendation of the Initiative is to emphasize the development, testing and validation of microbiological risk assessment methods. To do this these steps will be implemented;
  • Establish a Risk Assessment Consortium.
  • Develop and validate exposure assessment models based on probabilistic methodology.
  • Develop and validate response assessment models for use in Risk Assessment.
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Research
Food safety research is critically needed to develop the means of identifying more rapidly and accurately foodborne hazards, and provide the tools for regulatory enforcement. Additionally, develop effective interventions that can be used as appropriate to prevent hazards at each step from production to consumption.
New foodborne pathogens have emerged over the past ten years. Other microorganisms previously thought to be innocuous, have been linked to life threatening diseases after acquiring new viral gene and anti-microbial resistance. Many of these organisms cannot be detected readily due to a lack of suitable methods or their sporadic occurrences in foods.
  • Improved detection methods to include test methods for Campylobacter, Salmonella, Toxoplasma, E.coli O157:H7 Cryptosporidium, Hepatitis A and Norwalk viruses.
  • Understanding resistance to traditional preservation technologies.
  • Understanding antibiotic drug resistance.
  • Prevention techniques: pathogen avoidance, reduction and elimination.
  • Food handling, distribution, and storage.
  • The appropriate agency should work with industry and academia to develop and assess the effectiveness of package sensors to alert consumers of products not stored safely.
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Improving Inspections & Compliance
The number of inspections conducted by FDA have decreased steadily since 1981. A FDA regulated plant is inspected on an average of once every ten years. FDA has also relied upon the states to conduct some inspections under contract, but that number has dropped drastically.
Moreover, because of the number of imports, which has doubled over five years with no real increase in inspectors, a smaller percentage of imports are inspected at entry.
Given the limited inspection coverage, FDA is finding an increase in the number of problems. The number of products recalled for life threatening microbial contamination has increased almost five fold since 1988. Federal budget constraints will likely prohibit significant funding increases so FDA must find new ways to provide adequate inspection coverage.
  • Enhanced development of HACCP procedures
    1. FDA will propose appropriate regulatory and non-regulatory options for the manufacturer of vegetable, fruit and juice products.
    2. FSIS will propose appropriate regulatory and non-regulatory options for egg products.
    3. FSIS and FDA will publish and announce notice of proposed rule making (ANPR) in which they will evaluate the public health, food technology and regulatory issues involved in reducing the risk of human illness from Salmonella enteritidis in shelled eggs.
    4. FDA will evaluate whether to require the use of HACCP on other appropriate food commodities.
    5. FSIS and FDA will evaluate expanding upon existing cooperative agreements so that FSIS inspectors who inspect plants producing meat and non-meat foods are trained in FDA inspection standards.
  • Enhance the safety of foods in retail food establishments, particularly at state and local levels
    1. FDA and FSIS will hold a series of meetings with state and local regulators to establish retail program standards.
    2. FSIS and FDA will provide HACCP training to state and local inspectors.
  • Enhance federal and state inspection partnerships.
  • Enhance coverage of imported foods with specific attention to foods regulated by FDA.
    1. FDA will work to increase the number of mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) with trading partners.
    2. FDA will initiate a federal/state communication system through which states can inform federal agencies of problems found with imported products.
    3. FDA will initiate a system for accrediting private labs.
  • Enhance safety of foods during transportation.
    1. FDA and FSIS published an advanced notice (ANPR) on November 22, 1996.
Education
A part of the overall food safety initiative is providing food safety education to a variety of audiences; consumers, public health professionals and physicians, retail food service and institutional food preparers, veterinarians, and other personnel.
  • Improve consumer retail and foodservice education.
  • Identify key food safety education principles to establish an expert council.
  • Conduct research to identify barriers to safe food handling upon which educational programs will be centered.
  • Expand existing information systems.
  • Improve veterinarian and producer education.
  • Improve health professional education.
  • Improve industry education in the transportation area.
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If you would like additional information or a copy of the entire report please contact Certified Laboratories at 800-Cert-Lab.
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