OBAMA ADMINISTRATION GIVES BRIEFING ON FOOD SAFETY

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OBAMA ADMINISTRATION GIVES BRIEFING ON FOOD SAFETY

In a White House briefing today, recommendations made by a Food Safety Working Group created in March by President Obama were announced by Vice President Joe Biden, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. The Administration emphasized its focus on both preventing food contamination and enhancing the ability of the food safety system to respond to events such as an adulterated product in the market stream or an actual outbreak. The Administration issued new measures across the egg, beef and produce sectors.

Highlights of the changes applicable to egg producers :
• Egg producers must buy chickens from producers who monitor for salmonella
• If detected, egg samples will be tested for eight weeks, positives must be processed to destroy bacteria or diverted to non-food uses
• Eggs must be refrigerated no later than 36 hours after they are laid, on the farm and during transport
• New rules effective within a year for facilities with over 50,000 hens; within three years for producers with less than 50,000;
• Exemption: those with less than 3,000 hens or that sell directly to consumers
• Industry supports the requirements and have been complying voluntarily, according to spokesperson for United Egg Producers.

With regard to produce, FDA will issue commodity-specific draft guidance by the end of July for the reduction of microbial contamination in production and distribution of tomatoes, melons and leafy greens across the United States. FDA will seek public comment on this guidance over the next two years with a view to mandatory adoption through regulation at the end of that time. FDA has already conveyed its support of the development of a national Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, and we expect the FDA guidance to be informed by the experience of the produce industry, particularly the leafy green, tomato and melon sectors, which have, or are, developing food safety production standards. These guidelines as well as overarching verification programs such as the one associated with the leafy greens marketing agreements provide a foundation for FDA to complete their work in a fashion that both improves food safety and engages the expertise and experience of the fresh produce industry.

Other announcements from the briefing included:

• Improvements to food safety system’s response and recovery efforts through strengthened coordination between local, state and federal food safety authorities, industry guidance on product tracing systems, and the establishment of an incident command system to address outbreaks of foodborne illness.
• The use of new technology to deliver individual food safety alerts to consumers.
• Improved accountability through the creation of a Deputy Commissioner for Foods who will be empowered to restructure and revitalize FDA’s activities.
• The targeting of salmonella contamination by developing tougher standards to protect the safety of eggs, poultry, and turkey.
• Reducing the threat of E. coli contamination by stepping up enforcement in beef facilities.
• A continuing role for the Food Safety Working Group to address cross cutting issues and ensure increased coordination on food safety across the U.S. government.
• Revamped website: foodsafety.gov

Related links:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/07/food.safety.eggs/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106368735