Food safety knifed

A small but important editorial in the New York Times today:

The House has voted to cut $106 million from the president’s request for $1.036 billion for meat inspections by the Department of Agriculture. That money would help pay for the inspectors who oversee the 6,300 plants that process the nation’s meat and poultry supply.

To ensure the safety of these products, inspectors must be on site at all times. If they’re not, the plant must stop work. House Democrats say the budget cuts would require 37 to 40 furlough days for many of the 8,600 inspectors. Even a conservative estimate would put the loss of meat and poultry production at about $11 billion over the next seven months — a very large dent in the $177 billion annual business. It could also make a large dent in Americans’ household budgets, as reduced supplies drive up costs.

After recent problems with tainted peanut butter, spinach, nuts and eggs, Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration new authority and responsibility to monitor food safety. The House’s $129 million cut would seriously impede its ability to do that job, putting the health of American consumers at risk. We are all for savings, but these proposed cuts make no sense at all.

Play it safe

You might have missed this little quiz inside the Washington Post food section today, but it has some good information.

How sharp are your food-safety skills? Check them against these guidelines provided by the Partnership for Food Safety Education, a coalition of private groups and public agencies. Answer each question true or false.

1. Before being cooked, chicken should be rinsed thoroughly under running water and patted dry.

FALSE: Rinsing poultry increases the risk that you'll splatter salmonella and other contaminants around, outweighing the benefits of washing. Your best bet is to cook it until the meat inside is 165 degrees as measured by a food thermometer.

2. The best way to make sure a hamburger's safe to eat is to cook it until the inside meat is brown.

FALSE: Cook ground meat just until a food thermometer says it's 160 degrees. This will also keep you from overcooking your food.

3. You should wash cantaloupes and other melons before cutting them.

TRUE -- and it's true for any vegetable with a skin or rind, whether you eat it or not. Your knife blade could carry pathogens into the part you eat.

4. If you eat something suspicious but haven't fallen ill after 48 hours, you're in the clear.

FALSE: Incubation periods for food-borne illnesses range from 12 hours to a week or more; listeria can take up to 70 days.

5. Cutting boards need to be sanitized in the dishwasher or with chlorine bleach.

TRUE: It's not necessary every day, but the board should be sanitized. Outside the dishwasher, use soap and hot water, then coat it with a solution of one tablespoon of unscented bleach to one gallon of water. Let it stand a few minutes, then rinse and dab dry with paper towel.

6. You can make sure sprouts aren't contaminated by rinsing them thoroughly.

FALSE: The seeds from which sprouts sprout are often contaminated
with E. coli or salmonella, and even thorough washing won't help. People with compromised immune systems in particular should avoid eating raw sprouts.

7. You shouldn't ever put hot food in the fridge.

FALSE: If you're not going to eat it right away, you should divide hot food into small portions in shallow containers and stick them in the fridge. Bacteria multiply at temperatures between 40 and about 140 degrees, and food left in that range for more than about two hours is no longer safe to eat.

House advances food safety

Well, that was fast. After defeating a food-safety bill earlier this week, the House passed HR 2794 yesterday:

By Brian Faler, Bloomberg.com

The U.S. House approved the biggest overhaul of food-safety laws in decades in the wake of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses that sickened, killed and left industries fighting to woo back wary consumers.

The chamber voted 283 to 142 yesterday (July 30) to approve a $3.5 billion measure that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to write new regulations to safeguard the food supply, require more frequent inspections of processing plants and force companies to keep better records to help regulators trace outbreaks. The plan would be partly financed by a $500 annual fee on food producers.

“It will fundamentally change the way in which we ensure the safety of our food supply and protect American consumers, farmers and business,” said Representative John Dingell, a Michigan Democrat. “A series of food-borne disease outbreaks has laid bare unacceptable gaps in our food safety laws.”

Critics said the bill would impose too many rules along with a tax that would probably be passed on to consumers through higher food prices.

Leslie G. Sarasin, president of the Arlington, Virginia- based Food Marketing Institute, which represents companies such as Kroger Co., the largest U.S. supermarket chain, and Safeway Inc., the third-largest grocery chain, said his organization was pleased that the bill would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers, including mandatory recall authority.

“We urge the Senate to approve companion legislation quickly so the industry and government can take the actions required to enhance our nation’s food safety system,” Sarasin said in a written statement.

Twenty Democrats voted against the bill; 54 Republicans supported it. The measure now heads to the Senate where a food- safety bill introduced by Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, is awaiting committee approval.

President Barack Obama, in a statement yesterday, called the House legislation a “major step forward in modernizing our food safety system and protecting Americans from food-borne illness.”

The push for the bill followed food recalls involving cookie dough, spinach and peppers, among other items. Earlier this year, an outbreak of salmonella-tainted peanuts killed at least eight people and sickened 600. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses annually, 5,000 of which prove fatal.

The FDA oversees 80 percent of the nation’s food supply, with meat, eggs and poultry falling under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture.

The FDA, which currently has the authority to recall a handful of products including infant formula, would get expanded power under the bill to have more tainted items yanked off store shelves. The agency also would be allowed to impose quarantines restricting the movement of food deemed a threat to public safety.

The bill would require 360,000 domestic and foreign food facilities to be inspected more frequently, with those deemed the riskiest examined at least once a year. Plants would have to register annually with the government so regulators know “who is doing what,” said Dingell. Produce and processed foods would have to bear labels identifying their countries of origin.

Update: Food safety bill

The House on Wednesday defeated a bill aimed at toughening food safety laws, but there is hope that another will pass before the end of the week. It was six votes short of the needed two-thirds majority needed to pass.

The Washington Post said Democratic leaders were likely to reintroduce the bill Thursday under a special rule, which would require a simple majority for passage.

The bill is strongly supported by the White House and many consumer groups. It would place responsibility on farmers and food processors to prevent contamination before it occurs. The FDA would be required to set safety standards for growing and processing food and increase inspections and enforcement. The agency would be able to mandate the recall of a food if it suspects contamination instead of waiting for the processor to voluntarily call back tainted products.

A Senate version has bipartisan support, the Post said.

Doctor's orders

From Michael Roizen, M.D., and Mehmet Oz, M.D., here’s how to protect your family from food illnesses right now:

• POINT OF PURCHASE: Buy American or Canadian produce when you have a choice. North American plants get closer inspection than many foreign-grown products.
• IRRADIATION: Don’t be afraid of irradiated food. We believe this process, which kills disease-causing pathogens, makes meat, poultry, eggs, vegetables and fruit safer.
• BE CAREFUL: Keep hot foods piping hot and cold foods frosty cold. Refrigerate perishables, prepared foods and leftovers within two hours of buying, cooking or serving. Keep your hands, knives, cutting boards and counter tops clean while preparing food, and use separate knives and boards for meats and produce.
• FREEZE IT FAST:Limit how long you leave raw meats in the fridge: one to two days for ground meats, sausage and poultry; three to five days for beef, pork or veal. If it’s going to be longer, freeze it.

Snippets and snipes

I thought today I’d make a note of recent food news and opinion from around the nation.

From today’s Detroit Free Press editorial page:
If those carrots you bought at the local supermarket the other day are looking a little tired, it isn't their fault. Their journey to your refrigerator was likely an arduous one - typically in excess of 1,800 miles.
That broccoli hiding under the carrots likely traveled as far - even if, like most Americans, you live within a few dozen miles of a broccoli farmer. No wonder it's looking a little brown.
It wasn't always this way. As recently as the 1950s, most of what Michiganders ate was produced or raised close to their homes. The state's 151,000 farms sold most of what they grew or raised to local food outlets, selling only the excess to other states and countries.
Today, Michigan has only a third as many farms - and most of what they produce ends up in freezers or pantries far from the Great Lakes State.
Michiganders still consume huge quantities of fresh produce themselves. But the great majority of those fruits and vegetables are imported from other states and countries.
Like most arrangements that seem absurd on their face, this one follows a certain economic logic.
The big supermarket chains that distribute most of the nation's fresh produce are partial to drier climate varieties that travel well.
Michigan growers typically do better selling the state's succulent fruits and vegetables to food processing companies that freeze, dehydrate or can them for distribution worldwide.
But Michiganders concerned about food safety and the diminished nutritional value of processed foods, plus the high monetary and environmental costs of shipping food across vast distances, are hungry for fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy goods produced closer to where they live -- and farmers, distributors and retailers are all responding.
Now it's up to policymakers to promote a trend that promises enormous benefits to Michigan's health, environment and economic vitality.

From Reuters news service: Many U.S. food handlers do not maintain proper records to track products such as milk and oatmeal, making it hard to identify the source of a food-borne outbreak, a government investigator said on Thursday.
A review by the inspector general's office in the Health and Human Services Department found 59 percent of foodmakers, transporters, warehouses, retailers and other facilities in the study failed to meet requirements to keep records about sources, recipients and transporters of food.
A quarter of the firms were unaware they were required to do so by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), according to the review, which was based on a traceback test of 40 products, including milk, oatmeal and leafy vegetables.
The traceback test found in most cases the facility that "likely" handled the product was identified. Five items were traced throughout the entire supply chain, while investigators had trouble identifying who handled four of the products.
The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 requires produce processors and distributors to keep track of where food goes and has arrived from, enabling the FDA to use the records to track a product when there is a serious health threat.
Restaurants and farms are not covered by this requirement.
The pitfalls of the system were exposed last year when health officials took months to find the source of a salmonella outbreak. After first pointing to tomatoes as the source, the strain was later identified as coming from Mexican peppers.
The FDA defended that investigation, saying the process was delayed by poor record-keeping and delays checking paperwork. But critics called for a national tracking system.
"Traceability today is simply not good enough," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, chairwoman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA.
"It's inconsistent, unreliable and these findings confirm, what many in Congress already believe: That we need to do better," said DeLauro, who has introduced a bill that would improve food supply tracking.
Requiring a firm that handles a food product to maintain records of every facility or farm that handled the product and allowing the FDA to request a firm's record any time are among recommendations to strengthen the system.

From the Los Angeles Times: Adding to the chorus seeking an overhaul of the nation's food safety system, a report issued Wednesday called on the Obama administration to put someone in charge of safeguarding the food supply and to create a Food Safety Administration.
The food safety system is "plagued with problems," said Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, which released the report in conjunction with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
"We are way overdue for a makeover," said Michelle Larkin, director of the foundation's Public Health Team. "It costs us around $44 billion annually in medical care and lost productivity, so the stakes are really high."
Michael Taylor, a former FDA deputy and a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, said obsolete laws focus on reacting to problems rather than preventing them, and the agency is underfunded. Also, he said, there is no unified system for inspection, enforcement and notifying the public of dangers.

From the Associated Press: Drug industry advocates are quietly allying with some of their longtime critics pushing to split the Food and Drug Administration into two agencies, one for food safety and one for medical products.
President Barack Obama bolstered hopes for a breakup last Saturday when he named two public health specialists to the agency's top positions and appointed an advisory group to reassess the nation's decades-old food safety laws.
Drug executives see a chance to speed up drug approvals that have lagged amid a drought of new products, provided their regulator is no longer distracted by high-profile food-safety breakdowns.
"Every CEO that I know in health care is in favor of this, but none that value their share prices will go on the record for fear of retribution from the FDA," said Steve Brozak, president of WBB Securities, an investment brokerage focused on drug and biotech companies.
While FDA's food and drug staffs are separate, Brozak and others believe the public lashings over food outbreaks have made senior officials even more risk-averse on drug approvals.