Joshua McDade
Section 5
Safety of our Food Supply
With more and more public outbreaks, sickness,
and deaths due to comtamidation of certain foods,
the notion that the safety of our food supply is
insufficient has become a major topic for debate
in our society.
Outline
-Agencies that regulate food safety
-Historic outbreaks regarding food contamination
-Problems with food safety
-Measures to improve food safety
The Government's Role
-The U.S. Government plays a larger role in
securing our food supply than any other.
-While careless manufactorors and greedy
executives are usually blamed for food
contamination, the public looks to the
government to enforce safety laws.
-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is
responsible for preventing contaminated drugs
from getting onto the U.S. market.
U.S. Food & Drug Administration
-The FDA has existed for more than 100 years
-Regulates $417 billion worth of domestic food &
$49 billion worth of imported food each year
-The FDA Food Protection Plan builds on:
-Prevention
-Intervention
The prevention plan calls for:
-increasing corporate responsibility to prevent foodborne
illnesses
-identifying food vulnerabilities and assess risks
-expanding the understanding and use of effective
mitigation measures
The intervention plan calls for:
-focus inspections and sampling based on risk
- enhance risk-based surveillance
-improve the detection of food system “signals” that
indicate contamination
The response plan calls for:
-improve immediate response
-improve risk communications to the public, industry
and other stakeholders
Environmental Protection Agency
-The EPA also has a hand in the safety of our
food supply in the United States.
-EPA's mission related to pesticides is to protect
public health and the environment from risks
posed by pesticides and to promote safer
means of pest control.
-Pesticides are used to protect food from pests, such as
insects, rodents, weeds, mold, and bacteria.
-When improperly used or stored, pesticides can potentially
be harmful to humans, wildlife and the environment.
Pesticides in Food
-A study by the University of Hong Kong states
that up to 13% of their vegetables contain
illegal pesticides.
Food Contamination
-The following graph shows all diagosed cases
of infection from 1996 to 2006 relative to the
number of cases in 1996-1998.
All diseases except Vibrio1 have reported less
cases since 1998.
[1] Any of a group of aquatic, comma-shaped bacteria in the family Vibrionaceae. Some species cause serious diseases in humans.
Public Outbreaks from Food
-Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak (2008)
- Caused by jalapeño peppers and Serrano peppers
grown in Mexico
1442 persons infected; identified
from 43 states, the District of
Columbia, and Canada
●The outbreak strain was isolated
from samples of jalapeño peppers
collected in a US warehouse and
a patient's home and from
samples of serrano peppers and
water collected on a farm in
Mexico.
2.
-Salmonella Typhimurium: Peanut Products
-an ingredient-driven outbreak
-many different products that were distributed
through various channels and consumed in various
settings
-more than 2,100 products in 17 categories have
been voluntarily recalled by more than 200
companies
-six deaths and 107 hospitalizations among the 486
people sickened in 43 U.S. states and one
Canadian province
3. Salmonella Tennessee:
Peter Pan Peanut Butter
and Great Value Peanut
Butter
- faulted by a leaky roof and
malfunctioning sprinkler
system at a production
facility in plant in Sylvester,
Georgia
-linked to more than 600
cases of Salmonella
poisoning in 2007
Food Safety Legislation
-One of President Obama's
concerns is the nation's food
safety system.
- Obama: The nation's food safety
system is a hazard to public
health and overdue for an
overhaul
-The current budget only allows up to a fraction of
150,000 food processing plants to be inspected
-The administration wants more funding for
inspections
-Another approach is a ban on the slaughter of
"downer" cows (too sick or weak to stand on their
own), to keep them out of the food supply. They
pose a higher risk of having mad cow disease, E.
coli and other infections.
-More inspectors are needed and laboratories
need to be modernized for the 21st century.
Summary
There are many food hazards that we need to
know about and how to prevent them from
integrating with our food supply. The government,
suppliers, and consumers need to be aware of all
these hazards:
-Microorganisms
-Chemicals naturally present
-Chemicals produced by cooking
-Environmental Contaminants
- Pesticides
-Additives
References
-U.S. Food & Drug Administration. http://www.fda.gov
-Department of Health and Human Services. Food Protection
Plan, Nov 2007. http://www.fda.gov/oc/initiatives/advance/food/plan.html
-Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Salmonella
outbreak, Aug 2008. http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/saintpaul/
-Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. http://www.britannica.com
-WebMD. Peanut Butter Outbreak Rages On, Jan 2009.
http://www.webmd.com
-NewsInferno.com. Peter Pan Peanut Butter Back In Stores
Following Salmonella Recall, Aug 2007. http://www.newsinferno.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I hope that all of our food becomes safer. It is really sad that a lot of innocent people died because of food that they bought was not safe to eat. More reason to grow you own and practice the slow food movement.
ReplyDeleteWe had seen enough proof what could cause the contamination. I think it might be some workers don't care about sanitize, cleanliness... think they should be out of job and hire the people who wants to work with good pay.
ReplyDeleteI think the scary thing is how much we import food from other countries. We are pretty strict on keeping our food supply clean, but honestly how do we know other countries do the same?
ReplyDeleteI strongly believe that this is becoming more and more of a problem in the United States and it seems that people arent doing anything about it. This might be because many times we as citizens are not informed of these outbreaks unless it is a really bad case, and if its not then we may not hear about it at all. This is a big, big problem and we as Americans need to do whatever we can to provide safety for our own families and our neighbors.
ReplyDeleteThe recent peanut butter outbreaks have been so scary! I would hope that with all of the money that is put into keeping our food safe that this would not happen. I hope that the FDA does more to prevent this from happening.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that we usually only find out about a food "illness" when it's too late. I know it's impossible to test every product before it's released to the public but there's got to be some way to ensure everyone's safety when it comes to food.
ReplyDeleteI think that the government should be more involved with the laws of the safety of our food because of all the outbreaks latey. I can not believe that a country like the US still has situations like this occuring do to like you said, greed. Good report!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I read your report because I need to be more aware about the products I'm consuming. If the FDA is supposed to intervene and prevent food-bourne illnesses, then why are there outbreaks that are so large? I feel that they should be doing more.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how much food gets regulated by the FDA. With all that food i would believe that it is very hard to find a specific source for fod carrying an illness spreading bacteria.
ReplyDeleteThis was a good article I think I had an idea that there were several agencies that were working to make sure that food was not contaminated and that it was safe. However, this paper taught me what agencies are involved and what their plans are. As well as what they also do. I liked the specifics of this paper.
ReplyDeletegreat report!
ReplyDeleteI glad to know that the government is looking out for our food supply but I still think they aren't doing enough.
This is so relevant to the present day. Our food has become less safe. I would guarantee that the majority of people take this for granted. Just look at the bad milk epidemic in china or the Peanut butter out in America. It is important to be aware of what you are eating.
ReplyDelete