The Promise and Progress of the Food Safety Initiative
Susan Alpert, M.D., Ph.D., Food and Drug Administration, 200 C St, SW, Washington, DC, 20204
The focus of the multi-Departmental, multi-Agency and in FDA Multi-Center Food Safety Initiative is the risks and hazards presented by the food supply. Although arguably the safest supply in the world, there are still a significant number of illnesses and deaths attributable to foods in the US. Not all of the microbiological, chemical or pesticide risks are as yet clearly understood. Adding to that the fact that there are always new emerging pathogens with food as a vehicle for transmission poses a number of challenges for this effort.
A major goal of the Food Safety Initiative is to have an effective system to protect the public health from food-borne illness and hazard. The focus is on the entire system - "From Farm to Table." Such a system can only be effective if it is based on good science that is evaluated and leads to definitive actions that can be implemented with impact. A key step in this continuum is the evaluation of the science.
One objective of the initiative is to strengthen the scientific basis for food safety policies and regulatory decisions through rigorous assessments of risk. Once a risk is identified, its quantification and relevance to the public health must be determined. To do this, we need to bring the best scientists, reliable reproducible data and appropriate methods for assessment together in a meaningful way. Only then can we analyze how this risk compares with others and use that information to frame meaningful public policy.