NCL Bulletin, Vol. 59, No. 6, November/December 1997

Food Safety Concerns Confound Consumers

America's food supply is considered the safest in the world, yet contamination from dangerous germs has led to recent outbreaks of food-borne illness. Consumers are concerned by the mixed messages they hear from the media, food industry officials, and the government. While all three say we have the safest food supply, they also admit that contamination and food-borne illness are on the rise. They further recognize that as we begin to import more food from other countries, these problems will grow. What should consumers believe?

With the recent reports concerning e-coli 0157:H7, campylobacter, as well as more common germs such as salmonella, many consumers are worried that our food supply is not as safe as it should be. Frequent outbreaks, most notably the Hudson Foods outbreak, where 25 million pounds of ground beef was recalled because of contamination with the virulent e-coli 0157:H7, have brought the issue of food safety into the spotlight.

Response to Food Safety Recalls

In light of the Hudson Foods recall, and several others in the past few years, the federal government has been forced to act. The Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing on October 8 to address a bill, the Food Safety Enforcement Enhancement Act of 1997, sponsored by Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), to give federal officials additional authority to enforce food safety laws. This new bill has three main provisions designed to increase enforcement:

• Mandatory Recall -- This provision would allow USDA to order a mandatory recall if a product is found or suspected to be contaminated. Currently, the USDA has no authority to require that producers of contaminated meat and poultry recall those products. As a result, the USDA must negotiate with a company in order to get potentially dangerous meat and poultry off the market.

• Civil Penalties -- USDA will have the authority to impose civil fines on a company for non-compliance with current food safety regulations. While civil penalties are already used by most federal agencies to encourage compliance with federal statutes, USDA has been deprived of this enforcement tool.

• Refusal or Withdrawal of Inspection -- Without a federal inspector, a plant cannot sell its products outside its own state, nor can it sell it products with the "USDA Inspected and Approved" label. This effectively shuts down a plant. USDA could temporarily or permanently shut down plants for "willful and repeated violations of food safety regulations" or to "protect the health or welfare of consumers...."

As a member of the Safe Food Coalition (SFC), the National Consumers League is working to press Congress, the Administration, and the food industry to enact tougher and more effective food safety laws. SFC members have been meeting regularly with members of Congress and their staffs to discuss and promote the USDA bill as well as other enhancements to our food safety system.

In addition to the USDA bill, a new system of inspection is being implemented, starting in January. The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) will replace the old "poke and sniff" inspection system. HACCP, a science-based approach to food safety, is based on voluntary measures by meat and poultry processors and packers to determine where potential hazards may exist and correct them. Federal inspectors will focus more attention on record keeping and periodic testing for bacteria, rather than the traditional "hands-on" inspections of carcasses. HACCP allows for more flexibility to design individual systems, moving away from the "command-and-control" tactics currently used. Each plant can develop its own HACCP plan to best suit its production processes. In this way, HACCP is more concerned with outputs, rather than the process.