The Food Safety Initiative

On January 25, 1997, President Clinton announced a Food Safety Initiative (FSI) with a single mission--to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness to the greatest extent possible.

The President took this action as a result of major changes in the food system and consumer lifestyles that were placing Americans at greater risk from foodborne illness. While recognizing that, in general, the American food supply is safe, the FSI acknowledges that these changes place increasing challenges to the nation's food safety system.

FOOD SAFETY IN A CHANGING WORLD

What are the changes that affect the food system? People are eating a greater variety of foods and foods no longer need to be seasonal or locally grown. Food is often transported over long distances, domestically and internationally. This combination of new sources and wide distribution of food poses new safety challenges.

People are also eating more food prepared by others. In the past, most food was prepared in the home. Today, fifty cents of every food dollar is spent on food prepared outside the home. This includes ready-to-eat foods from restaurants and supermarkets. There are also a large number of Americans who have their meals prepared and served in hospitals, nursing homes, and day care and senior centers.

The number of people considered to be at higher risk for foodborne illness has also increased. Today, nearly twenty-five percent of people in the United States fall into this category: the elderly, young children, pregnant women and the immuno-compromised. Moreover, the size of the vulnerable population is growing. Due to increased longevity, the senior population is now the fastest growing sector of society.

Finally and most importantly, resistance trends in pathogenic bacteria, as well as new and more deadly pathogens, have emerged in the food supply. Fifty years ago scientists had identified four foodborne pathogens; today five times that number have been identified.

SCIENCE-BASED FOOD SAFETY SYSTEM

Working together, the federal government's food safety agencies, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, (CDC) and the Environmental Protection Agency have responded to these changes by laying the foundation for the creation of a state-of-the-art science-based food safety system. This system focuses on combating foodborne illness on two major strategic fronts:

• Through the development of prevention strategies, programs that will keep pathogens out of the food, throughout the food chain from farm to table. These prevention programs are supported by education and verification--by educating producers, processors, distributors, food service workers, and consumers in how to use prevention techniques correctly, and by verifying, through inspections at business establishments, that prevention techniques are being applied properly; and

• Through the development of a strong outbreak response capability that provides for the early detection and containment of foodborne hazards before they become widespread and helps develop the knowledge to prevent future outbreaks.

PREVENTION, EDUCATION, and VERIFICATION

Prevention is the key to reducing foodborne illness. Scientific risk assessment programs identify threats to the public health from the environment, from processing systems, from food handlers and other sources in the nation's food system. This information is used to identify the most effective techniques to prevent pathogens from entering the food supply.

Regulatory prevention programs such as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, look for places where contamination is likely to occur as a way to reduce risk. Mandated at seafood, meat and poultry production and processing facilities, HACCP programs identify and document methods to prevent contamination.

Development and adoption of model prevention programs is another technique to advance food safety. An example is the 1999 Food Code, a model code of food safety guidelines for food service establishments that promotes food safety by serving as a reference for more than 3,000 state and local regulatory agencies that oversee food safety in restaurants, grocery stores, nursing homes, and other institutional and retail settings. Working together with food industries to establish voluntary guidelines, such as the good agricultural and good manufacturing practices for raw fruits and vegetables, also help prevent pathogens from entering the food supply.

Education about food safety practices for food handlers along the farm to table continuum is an effective prevention program as well. Programs to teach good agricultural practices to domestic and international growers, development of knowledge and skill competencies for food service managers and food safety regulators assigned to inspect retail food service establishments, school-based education programs to instill in young people life long safe food handling practices, and media and community-based public information campaigns to reach at-risk populations are all part of FSI.

Verification of the effectiveness of the prevention programs is achieved through varying types and frequencies of inspection procedures at domestic food production and processing facilities, at international borders, and at foreign locations of producers and processors who export food to the United States.

HACCP

The Federally mandated, science-based Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system is a critical prevention program under the Food Safety Initiative. This program identifies points where contamination is likely to occur and puts in place appropriate process controls to prevent contamination during production and processing at seafood, meat and poultry facilities. With HACCP regulatory programs, there is a clear delineation of responsibilities between industry and the regulatory agencies. Industry has the primary responsibility for the safety of the food it produces and distributes. The government's principle role is to verify that industry is carrying out its responsibility, and to initiate appropriate regulatory action if necessary. Technical assistance is provided to facilities implementing HACCP plans.

OUTBREAK RESPONSE

Fast and effective response to emerging pathogens in the food supply is essential to preventing widespread illness. FSI's outbreak response program uses scientific research as the foundation for a multi-faceted program that includes:

• Scientists at the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) sites located throughout the country who actively track laboratory-confirmed cases of foodborne disease in their nearby population centers. Findings are shared among sites and with the CDC to gain a more accurate picture of the number of possible foodborne disease cases annually;

• A computerized database, PulseNet, that matches the DNA fingerprint of foodborne diseases accelerating the traceback process to the source of the contamination;

• The Epidemiology Rapid Assessment Team available 24 hours a day to provide a rapid review of incoming reports of foodborne disease and to coordinate traceback and containment efforts; and

• FORCE-G, the Foodborne Outbreak Response Coordinating Group, that links federal, state and local government agencies to enhance coordination and communication in responding to outbreaks, use resources efficiently and prepare for new and emerging threats to the food supply.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are important to the health and well being of the American consumer. However, in recent years the detection of outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with both domestic and imported fresh fruits and vegetables has increased. As a result, President Clinton introduced the Produce Safety Initiative in the fall of l997. Like the FSI, of which it is a part, the PSI addresses the entire produce food chain from grower to table.

VOLUNTARY GUIDANCE

To minimize microbial hazards in the production, packing and transport of fresh fruits and vegetables, voluntary guidance has been developed that represents generally accepted, safe science-based agricultural practices. Published in the Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Harzards For Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, the recommendations identify critical control points where contamination is likely to happen and outlines steps that can be taken to minimize the risk of that occurring. Developed in consultation with consumers, growers packers and shippers, these recommendations are designed to be tailored to the needs of individual facilities and farms.

The Guide identifies broad microbial hazards, the scientific basis for the hazard, and good agricultural practices and good management practices that can be used to reduce the risk of microbial contamination in fresh and minimally processed produce. Five areas of concern are addressed in the Guide:

• Water quality
• Manure and municipal biosolids
• Worker health and hygiene
• Sanitation, including fields and packing facilities
• Transportation

The recommendations also establish traceback procedures so that the sources of bacteria can be identified and safeguards put in place to prevent further contamination.

IMPORTS

On the premise that the safety of imported foods can be better monitored where foods are produced rather than as they cross the U.S. border, new programs are being designed to prevent contamination in countries that export to the United States. Assessment of foreign controls over food products exported to the United States are underway and technical assistance is being provided to foreign countries.

Foreign inspections of food establishments that produce food products at high risk for microbial contamination will be conducted and conventional surveillance of imported food products at U.S. borders will be increased. When foodborne illness outbreaks associated with imported foods occur, follow up investigations in the exporting countries will be conducted.

Although it is among the best in the world, the nation's food safety system can and will be improved. Illnesses due to contaminated food, while preventable, continue to occur. The Food Safety Initiative is establishing a strong foundation for creating the safest science-based food system possible.

For further information about the Food Safety Initiative check the U.S. Government's website, www.FoodSafety.gov.