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The purpose of this session is to talk about where we need to go and what are some of the regional issues that would impact on how to proceed. We have been conducting research on juice for some time now, but in many respects we're just starting. There continues to be a number of issues and several needs. Often when we hold a workshop of this nature, we get more questions than we get answers. We wanted to have an opportunity at the end of the session to talk about where we want to go.
In order to do this, we have brought together a panel with some regional representation. The panel includes Dr. Beelman representing the East Coast; Bob Tritten representing the Central States; and Dr. Mary Wang representing the West Coast. We also wanted to get some industry representation, and asked Jim Cranney to come over here from the U.S. Apple Association. Further, we wanted some of our research people, and we have Chuck Seizer from our research facility in Chicago.
We will ask each person to make about a 10-minute presentation regarding their observations and opinions on the subject of food safety for the apple cider industry and where FDA needs to proceed. We will then open it up at the end for discussion.
CONTINING RESEARCH NEEDS -- PANEL DISCUSSION
Dr. Robert Beelman, Penn State University
(Taken from the transcript)
Actually, I don't purport to represent the East Coast perspective. I'm from Penn State but I don't know exactly what everyone on the East Coast would want me to say. So I'm speaking for myself here, after observing what has been discussed at the workshop.
The one thing that has become clear to me during the past two days is that we need some kind of a post-processing intervention. I think we have to presume that it is true that E. coli can be present in the fruit.
I keep going back to the logic with canning low-acid foods and the 12 D concept with botulism. We require a 12 D process for low acid canned food because of a risk assessment kind of approach over the years. There really aren't very many botulism spores on most raw food commodities. We still give it a 12 D process because of the safety situation. I'm not saying that it's analogous, but there are some lessons from history here.
I'm also not saying it has to be pasteurization. Some of the work that has been done on the freezing and warming I think is very encouraging. The UV pasteurization process I think is also very encouraging.
I think the use of preservatives has been, for some reason, underplayed. I see very little information about the use of chemical preservatives. I know Randy Worobo has done some work on preservatives along with the UV pasteurization. I don't know why he didn't present the data. I guess he wasn't asked to.
Thus, it seems to me that we need some kind of a post-processing intervention, based on this paper that just came out from Maryland. Basically what it says, is that a lot of controls can be applied in the orchard and washing, and that all these controls are useful. However, the bottom line in that paper is that these types of controls can't be counted on to protect the public health.
So please don't assume that this is the East Coast perspective. This is my personal perspective. Of course I also have a personal interest because I'm working on preservatives. Nevertheless, knowing what goes on at all these cider operations, and I've been to a number of them in Pennsylvania and other States, I just can't see the fact that all of the intervention steps along the way that we talked about earlier are going to be foolproof.
