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IAFP 2004 Plenary Session
Presented by
Merle D. Pierson, Ph.D.
Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety
United States Department of Agriculture
“Food Safety Policy at USDA:
The Road from an Ambitious Vision to Tangible Results”
Significant food safety advancements have been made in the past
year. One of these improvements is in implementation and verification
of plant Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOP) and Hazard
Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plans, which have led to
a dramatic decline in the number of meat and poultry product recalls
during 2003. The number of Class I, or high risk, recalls in 2003
have been nearly cut in half from the total observed in 2002. In
the first half of 2004, the number of Class I recalls decreased
even further to 16. This is a strong indicator that the agency’s
scientifically based policies and programs are working to prevent
adulterated product from entering the marketplace.
More importantly, the accomplishments of our initiatives can be
observed in the annual (2004) report on the incidence of infections
from foodborne illness by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC). The report noted significant declines from 1996 to 2003 in
illnesses caused by E. coli O157:H7 (42%), Salmonella (17%), Campylobacter
(28%), and Yersinia (49%). Illnesses caused by Salmonella Typhimurium
(typically associated with meat and poultry) decreased by 38%. Between
2002 and 2003, illnesses caused by E. coli O157:H7, typically associated
with ground beef, dropped by 36%. This reduction in E. coli O157:H7
illnesses brings the US closer to achieving the “Healthy People
2010” goal of 1.0 case per 100,000 people.
CDC attributes the changes in the incidence of these infections
to control measures implemented by government agencies and the food
industry, and enhanced food safety education efforts. Specifically
with regard to E. coli O157:H7, CDC attributes the reduction in
illness caused by this pathogen to policies implemented in 2002
and 2003 by FSIS.
While these results are positive, eliminating foodborne illness
is an evolving challenge. Through analysis and discussions with
the scientific community, public health experts, and all interested
parties, issues have been identified that need to be addressed to
attain the next level of public health protection. A brief description
of these challenges is also presented. The resulting strategies
should help FSIS pursue its goals and achieve its mission of reducing
foodborne illness.
The first challenge is the need to anticipate/predict risk through
enhanced data integration. FSIS is engaged in developing innovative
ways to anticipate hazards, so that it can act to ensure that those
hazards do not manifest themselves as public health problems. One
significant way in which this can be accomplished is by thoroughly
analyzing data obtained from FSIS’ regulatory sampling, as
well as other sources of data, so as to discern trends and identify
connections between persistence, prevalence and other factors, such
as plant practices, seasonal variations, and establishment size.
The second challenge is the need for improved application of risk
into regulatory and enforcement activities. Food safety problems
need to be documented as they occur, so that conditions may be analyzed
and, if need be, corrected as appropriate. A better understanding
of the prevalence and types of food safety failures could allow
better assessment of how to best address them. Data regarding the
causes of food safety violations, either within a specific establishment
or within a class of establishments, can be utilized in order to
better focus our attention where the risks are greatest. In addition,
it can provide us with a tool to determine enforcement trends by
district and by circuit, which supervisors can use to determine
whether enforcement actions are being consistently applied.
The third challenge is the need for improved association of program
outcomes to public health surveillance data. We have seen notable
advances in preventing foodborne illness, which CDC has attributed
in part to the implementation of HACCP. However, there still is
a need to determine how specific policies affect public health.
Data that links foodborne illness outbreaks with specific foods
needs to be connected with prevalence data of specific pathogens
in specific foods. To complete the linkage with public health outcomes,
a strong connection with human health surveillance data is needed.
FSIS, together with our partners in public health, are working to
accomplish this through FoodNet.
The fourth challenge is improving food safety beyond our borders.
Food safety is an issue of global importance. As such, it needs
to be recognized that FSIS’ efforts transcend US borders, and
paying special attention to this reality can help guide the agency’s
fulfillment of its vision for food safety. With the proliferation
of movement of people, food, and agricultural products between countries,
the likelihood of food that is produced in one country and then
being consumed on the dinner table in another is increasing. The
acceleration and expansion of this process is evidenced and hastened
by the multitude of regional, bilateral, and multilateral trade
relationships being pursued and established among countries. With
this trend, FSIS has emerged not only as an established leader in
effective food safety standards and regulations for the US, but
also as the vanguard entity responsible for enhanced food safety
on a global scale.
By focusing on these initiatives FSIS will further advance food
safety in the US and abroad. For more information, please read Fulfilling
the Vision: Updates and Initiatives in Protecting Public Health
available on the FSIS Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov.
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