Summary Points
- Suggestions were made that the following be expanded in the
Food Safety Chapter: definition of surveillance and discussion of the relationships and
interactions among food regulatory and health agencies at the Federal, State and local
levels.
- Consumer Food Handling: Suggestions made on additions or
alternate wording for the consumer handling objective on cooking included changing the
word "hamburger" to "ground beef" or "ground meat" and
adding objectives or sub-objectives on cooking eggs and poultry. Questions were raised on
whether the survey included a question about washing hands before cooking and how
"promptly" is defined for the "Chill, refrigerate promptly" objective.
Statistical information was requested on the margin of error for the total population for
the survey and in particular for the question on chilling food.
- Allergy: Three suggestions were made on this developmental
objective. First, the description of common food allergens should include
"dairy" instead of "milk." Second, educational and ingredient
information may be needed for schools, daycare operations, and restaurants. The third
suggestion was to include latex allergy as a food allergy. This suggestion was brought by
a consumer whose son had suffered a severe anaphylactic reaction after eating salad
prepared by workers wearing latex gloves.
Other notes:
For Objective 6.1, the age of children tested for
toxoplasmosis was questioned. The objective currently says only "children" and
should be more explicit. Wording in the data section explains that "children"
includes children in the age range 6-10 years since that is the measure that can be
obtained from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
Another suggestion was to return to the chapter an
objective on State Adoption of the Food Code, as is currently included in the Healthy
People 2000 Priority Area 12, Food and Drug Safety.
Submitted by: Elisa L. Elliot, Ph.D.,
Coordinator, Food Safety Work Group |