PDF Version One of the most thorough and effective food safety and defense systems in the world is the U.S. government, which performs the following chief functions:
- Establishment of Safety Standards
- Monitoring and Inspection
- Enforcement
- Tracking Food Safety Problems
- Protecting the Food Supply
Federal Regulation
The federal system of regulation consists of numerous laws and involves various agencies, each with important roles in carrying out food safety, defense, and quality activities. This segmentation of responsibility requires extensive efforts to coordinate various agency activities. Federal laws mandate how each federal agency approaches its role in food safety. In 2005, there were more than 70 interagency agreements delineating respective responsibilities between agencies with food safety and defense authority.1 These agreements help avoid wasteful duplication of effort, conflicting actions, and gaps in coverage.
Yet, from time to time, legislators explore the feasibility of a single food agency. Critics charge that overlapping jurisdictions and duplication of efforts waste taxpayers’ money and may result in a fragmented system that prevents an effective focus of resources on areas where the risks are greatest. Federal officials argue that, by working cooperatively and through formal understandings among the agencies, federal agencies can avoid duplicating efforts while more effectively achieving the common goal of protecting public health and the nation’s food supply.
Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS)
The following agencies are under the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and play a role in ensuring food safety and promoting diet and health.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA): The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health. FDA also ensures that these products are honestly, accurately and informatively represented to the public. With regard to food, the FDA is responsible for the regulation of about 80 percent of the U.S. food supply.2
Food Safety. The FDA develops standards for foods including food ingredients and color additives. It conducts research to improve detection and prevention of contamination, and collects and interprets data on nutrition, food additives, and pesticide residues. The agency also inspects food processing plants, imported products, and some animal food facilities. The FDA also regulates packaging, irradiation, other microbial reduction
technologies, and microwave ovens.
Food Defense. FDA works with other government agencies and private sector organizations to protect consumers and help reduce the risk to consumers of tampering or other malicious, criminal, or terrorist actions on the food and cosmetic supply.
Pesticides. The FDA enforces pesticide tolerances established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for products within their jurisdiction.
Seafood. The FDA operates an oversight compliance program for fishery products under which responsibility for the product’s safety, wholesomeness, identity and economic integrity rests with the processor or importer, who must comply with regulations. In addition, FDA operates the Low-Acid Canned Food (LACF) program which is based on the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) concept, and is focused on thermally processed, commercially sterile foods, including seafood such as canned tuna and salmon. The FDA also provides consumption guidelines pertaining to various environmental contaminants that may be in seafood.
Animal Health Products. The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) is responsible for assuring that animal drugs and medicated feeds are safe and effective and that food from treated animals is safe to eat. The responsibilities of CVM have a direct effect on the safety of the human food supply and on the safety to animals of veterinary products.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): The mission of CDC is to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability.
The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is the principal foodborne disease component of CDC’s Emerging Infections Program (EIP). FoodNet provides a network for responding to new and emerging foodborne diseases of national importance, monitoring the burden of and identifying the sources of specific foodborne diseases.
PulseNet is a national network of state and local public health departments and food regulatory agency laboratories coordinated by the CDC. This network of public health laboratories “fingerprints” various strains of foodborne disease-causing bacteria and compares results through an electronic database to help facilitate early detection of outbreaks.
The Laboratory Response Network (LRN) became operational in August 1999 and is charged with the task of maintaining an integrated network of state and local public health, federal, military, and international laboratories that can respond to bioterrorism, chemical terrorism, and other public health emergencies.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency responsible for ensuring that the nation’s commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. FSIS monitors domestic and imported meat and poultry products and certain egg products for bacterial contamination and for residues of pesticides, drugs, and other chemicals.
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Protection Service (APHIS) provides leadership in ensuring the health and care of animals and plants, improving agricultural productivity and competitiveness, and contributing to the national economy and the public health.
USDA’s National Residue Program protects consumers from adulterated meat and poultry products and ensures that pesticide residues do not exceed tolerances set by the EPA.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
The mission of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is to protect human health and the environment. Among its many activities, a priority for the EPA is to regulate the development, distribution, promotion, handling, storage, use, and disposal of pesticides used in the growing and production of food.
The EPA also sets tolerances or limits for the amount of pesticide residues that lawfully may remain in or on food marketed in the United States. EPA-established tolerances also apply to all imported foods and commodities. The agency works with state and tribal governments to establish permissible levels of contaminants for seafood harvesting waters.
Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Responsibility for protecting the seafood supply is shared by federal and state agencies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) oversees fisheries management in the United States, NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries Service) is dedicated to the stewardship of living marine resources through science-based conservation and management and the promotion of healthy ecosystems. Additionally, NOAA Fisheries Service has an obligation to help make information about seafood products more accessible to the general public. FDA ensures the safety of fish and seafood products for consumers.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
The Department of Homeland Security was established to coordinate and maintain an increased level of security among domestic agencies. Homeland Security leverages resources within federal, state, and local governments, coordinating the transition of multiple agencies and programs into a single, integrated agency focused on protecting the American people and their homeland. The DHS coordinates partnerships among federal agencies and state and local leadership, the private sector, and the academic community with the common goal to strengthen the security of our nation’s food supply through awareness, prevention, protection, response and recovery. For example, the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD) is a University-based partnership addressing security issues related to post-harvest food production. The Center is a national consortium of academic, public sector, and industry partners, formed through a federal grant, led by the University of Minnesota.
Non-Federal Organizations
National Academies
The National Academies perform a public service by bringing together committees of experts in all areas of scientific and technological endeavor. These experts serve pro bono to address critical national issues and give advice to the federal government and the public. Four organizations comprise the Academies: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.
Reports and studies related to food safety are primarily conducted by the Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board (FNB) and the National Research Council’s Board on Agriculture and the Board on Environmental Sciences and Toxicology.
State Regulation
Several agricultural agencies are responsible for food safety on the state level. The laws and standards they enforce generally coincide with either federal laws or uniform model codes such as those created by the Association of Food and Drug Officials. State departments of agriculture spend significant portions of their budgets each year on food safety programs. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) also provides guidance to states on food safety matters.
Food and Agriculture Industry
All sectors of the food and agriculture industry are responsible for safeguarding the food supply. Their roles include:
- Research and development: Companies are continually looking for ways to develop and improve food products to meet consumer demands.
- Adhering to government regulations: All sectors must abide by strict regulations regarding the processing, packaging, and transportation of foods.
- Working with government extension agents: Government extension agents and land-grant universities stay abreast of state-of-the-art production and safety practices, and work to incorporate them into production and processing operations.
- Working with veterinarians and consultants: These food professionals provide their expertise to improve the safety and security of the food supply
- Instituting quality control programs: Virtually all food companies have instituted a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system, which is a systematic approach to the identification, evaluation, and control of food safety hazards.
- Private testing: Many producers and some retailers have set up their own private testing systems to ensure the safety and quality of their products.
- Education: As consumer interest in food safety has increased, so too have the educational efforts by the food industry.
Consumers
Consumers also have important food safety responsibilities. Once food is purchased from the supermarket, handling, storage, and cooking practices can have an enormous impact on its safety. They must also have ready access to food safety information. Consumers should use a credible source on food safety to make informed decisions about their eating habits.
Foodborne Illness
Foodborne illness generally refers to illnesses caused by microorganisms consumed through food or beverages. When people complain of “food poisoning,” they may actually have been exposed to the microorganisms that cause foodborne illness. Microbes, bacteria, and pathogens are other terms used to describe the microorganisms that cause foodborne illness.
The effects of foodborne illness can range from relatively minor discomfort to more serious symptoms and manifestations such as fever, diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration, and even death. The acute illnesses posed by foodborne organisms, coupled with the ease and swiftness with which some develop, present food safety challenges for the entire food distribution chain.
Foodborne Illness Estimates
Government estimates vary widely as to the prevalence of foodborne illnesses. Cases of foodborne illness tend to be underreported because many people mistake foodborne illness for another illness, such as the flu, and simply do not visit a physician. The CDC, the federal agency that collects and disseminates information on foodborne illnesses, estimates that 5,000 Americans die each year from foodborne illnesses, 76 million people get sick, and more than 325,000 are hospitalized. These estimates are extrapolated from surveillance data of reported cases.
Symptoms of Foodborne Illness
The most common symptoms of foodborne illness include mild to severe abdominal cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, double vision, difficulty swallowing, and flu-like symptoms (fever, chills, headache, and backache). Other symptoms associated with certain bacteria or viruses include breathing problems, blood infections, infection of the brain or nervous system, and kidney problems. Symptoms may appear from six hours up to ten days after exposure. Since foodborne illness can potentially cause severe illness or death, people who suspect they have become sick from food should see a doctor.
What Causes Foodborne Illness?
Foodborne illness is caused by microorganisms that are found widely throughout nature and the environment. The five basic categories of foodborne illness agents or contaminants include bacteria, viruses, parasites, food toxins, and unknown sources. The most common causes of foodborne illness are bacteria and the toxins produced by certain bacteria.
Generally, bacteria can spread easily and rapidly, requiring only nourishment, moisture, a favorable temperature, and time to multiply. Animal protein foods—meat, eggs, poultry, and fish—can be common hosts of foodborne bacteria. However, bacteria can be readily spread from a non-food item—such as a knife, crate, cutting board, or human hands—to food.
Contaminants causing foodborne illness can originate within the food (meat or fish), on the food (egg shell or produce), from unsafe water, or from human or animal feces. Favorite bacteria hiding places in the home include sponges, dish towels, aprons, cutting boards, sinks, counter tops, and wooden utensils.
Major Foodborne Illnesses Caused by Bacteria or Viruses
It is important to emphasize that since there are literally thousands of different strains of bacteria that can cause foodborne disease, it is difficult to generalize their characteristics and effects. The following types of bacteria are associated with most reported cases of foodborne illness in the United States:
- Bacillus cereus
- Botulism
- Campylobacter jejuni
- Clostridium perfringens.
- Escherichia coli (E.coli)
- Listeria monocytogenes
- Salmonella species
- Shigella
- Staphylococcus
- Vibrio parahaemolyticus
- Yersinia enterocolitica
Viruses also can cause foodborne illness. In these illnesses, food and water serve as vehicles for person-to-person spread of a virus.
- Norovirus
- Hepatitis A
- Rotavirus
Who’s At Risk?
Anyone can be afflicted with foodborne illness. However, certain segments of the population face greater risks and have a higher incidence of foodborne illness. They are:
- Older people
- Pregnant women, infants, and children
- People with weakened immune systems
Prevention of Foodborne Illness
Collectively, government, consumer groups, and the food industry are expanding food safety education efforts.
Public health experts believe unsanitary food preparation practices are major contributors to outbreaks. If foods are prepared a day or more before consumption and food handlers are careless, the chance of illness can increase because bacteria have more time to multiply.
The Partnership for Food Safety Education—a coalition of government, consumer and industry groups—launched its Fight BAC!™ consumer education campaign in 1997 to promote safe food handling practices and encourage behavior change among consumers.3
Advances in Food Safety Technology
Through various incidences of foodborne illness, interest in analytical technologies to identify harmful bacteria in food has grown tremendously. Additionally, there have been vast advancements in technologies, such as the irradiation of food and new anti-microbial washes and bacterial sprays to eliminate harmful bacteria from food products during processing.
Methods for Microbial Testing and Elimination
Analyzing food products for the presence of impurities, harmful bacteria, or other organisms presents many difficulties. The complexity of food and its many components make developing assessment tools a challenge over those for use with simple substances like water.
Once limited to time-consuming laboratory tests, many newer technologies in place today enable the rapid identification of harmful components in food so that items can be efficiently removed from the food supply system.
There are two major types of rapid assays—antibody-based and nucleic acid-based assays. Antibody-based assays rely on specific interactions between antigen and antibody. An antibody assay links a familiar characteristic on the bacteria’s surface (an antigen) to a substance known as an antibody. This connection is as specific as a key to a lock. When this connection is made, the test registers “success” by producing a visible reaction such as the appearance of a colored band, a measurable electrical signal or a sand-like precipitate.
Nucleic acid-based assays use the genetic material or “fingerprint” of an organism or impurity to identify “who” it is and “what” it does. Because there is abundant DNA or rRNA in most cells, it is the most accurate way to characterize and identify a bacterium or virus that could cause foodborne illness. The highly specific nature of these tests enables identification of not only the organism, but also the source (the farm, processing facility or human contact) of the foodborne pathogen. These tests will help food manufacturers and government regulators trace harmful bacteria to the exact source of the contamination before it has a chance to get to consumers. These tests can also identify the source of an outbreak of foodborne illness to a human source, food preparation location, or an initial food item.
Emerging Methods to Control or Eliminate Pathogens
Food irradiation is a food safety tool that serves as a complement to other food safety technologies. It is the process of exposing food products to radiant energy. This process produces various preservation effects, from delaying spoilage to killing harmful bacteria. Foods are irradiated by using ionizing energy (gamma rays, electron beams, or x rays) for a specified length of time. Food irradiation is best applied to foods at the end of food processing, as close to moving into the consumer marketplace as possible. This process can be referred to as “cold pasteurization,” because it eliminates harmful bacteria without the use of heat.
Under federal regulations, irradiated food must be identified on product labels with the international symbol for irradiation (the Radura), simple green petals in a broken circle. This symbol must be accompanied by the words, “treated by irradiation” or “treated with radiation.” Both the FDA and USDA allow for use of additional statements of public health benefit on labels of irradiated food products, such as, “to eliminate harmful bacteria.”
Other Food Safety Technologies
Lactoferrin, a protein found in cows milk and beef, has been developed as an anti-microbial spray to fight E. coli. The lactoferrin spray is applied to uncooked beef carcasses prior to processing and its use has been approved by the FDA.
Sodium lactate and sodium diacetate are two additional ingredients used to enhance the safety of meat and poultry, and have been found to be particularly effective as antimicrobial agents in the control of Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat lunchmeats and hot dogs. They are generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by FDA and are permitted for use in these products by USDA.
The use of ozone in food processing as a food safety technique is being adapted from its use in water treatment and sanitation. Ozone has been used in water treatment for over 100 years, and is used with 98 percent of all bottled water sold in the United States. For food processing applications, ozone may cover a broader range of microorganisms than chlorine.
Unfamiliar Compounds in Foods
Improved detection methodology and instrumentation can lead to further understanding of the components found in food products. Although some of these compounds may, by themselves, be toxic, it is the dose that makes the poison with regards to human toxicology.
There is a great deal of play between the interaction of detection capability, perceived risks, true toxicological effects, and public health. Definition and resolution of the public health impact often requires extensive toxicological research and risk assessments. Interim information is frequently inconclusive and provides incomplete science on which to base solid dietary guidance outside of those recommended for general health.
Some contaminants, ubiquitous in the environment, make their way into the food supply via water uptake in plants that are consumed by fish and animals, and are present at detectable levels in animal feed and human foods.
Acrylamide: In April 2002, a group of Swedish scientists presented research that detected trace levels of a probable human carcinogen and neurotoxicant—acrylamide—in some baked and fried foods.
Research indicates that acrylamide occurs in certain foods when they are prepared using traditional cooking methods like frying, baking, and toasting, whether in a food production plant, in a restaurant, or at home.
Thus, acrylamide probably has been present at some level in foods ever since humans began cooking. In the United States, the FDA and the scientific community will continue to evaluate the accumulated data and testing protocols, and will determine appropriate recommendations as necessary. From the robust body of research conducted over the past several years, there is currently not sufficient information to draw firm conclusions about health risks to humans.
Benzene is a known carcinogen found in some foods, both naturally occurring and due to environmental contamination.
In the 1990s, scientists determined that under some conditions, benzene could be formed in some beverages when both ascorbic acid and benzoate are present under specific storage conditions and beverage companies implemented programs to address the issue. In 2005, the FDA received reports that low levels of benzene had been detected in soft drinks; and initiated a survey of benzene levels in some soft drinks. FDA has concluded that the results of their survey indicate that the levels of benzene found in soft drinks do not pose a public health safety concern. FDA will continue to collect and analyze samples and to work with industry to better understand the nature of benzene formation in these beverages and the sources of variability.
Bisphenol A, also referred to as BPA, is a chemical used in the manufacture of some food packaging materials. Products using BPA include reusable plastic containers for food and beverages, baby bottles, and the linings of cans used for food products.
Some have alleged that high exposure to BPA can cause cancer, tumors, and even developmental and hormonal changes in humans. However, expert studies consistently find no such effects given the low level of BPA exposure consumers receive. It is virtually impossible to come in contact with an unsafe amount of BPA through our day-today living activities.
Dioxin and dioxin-like compounds are colorless, odorless organic compounds containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and chlorine. They are produced naturally from fires, and from traditional human activities such as manufacturing, incineration, and exhaust emissions. Many of the emissions from these human activities have been reduced.
Dioxins can be deposited on plants and taken up by animals and fish as they feed and thus, may enter the food chain. Dioxins have a high affinity for fatty substances and are found in fat tissue. This human exposure to dioxins comes from the diet through food and human breast milk. Typical dietary exposure, even over the course of many years, is still far below that which might occur in accidental occupational exposures. Recent reports indicate that there are no known established health effects in people resulting from typical dioxin exposure through diet and environment.
Methylmercury: Mercury finds its way into the food chain when naturally occurring mercury or mercury from air pollutants is deposited into rivers and lakes. Once in the water, bacteria transform the air-borne mercury into methylmercury. Nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury; therefore people can be exposed to methylmercury by eating fish. Larger, predatory species of fish absorb methylmercury from the water and ingest it when eating algae and other smaller species of fish. The amount of methylmercury, measured in parts per million (ppm), vary greatly, largely based upon the species, size and age of the fish.
In a few species, methylmercury levels can reach 1 ppm, which is the limit allowed by the FDA in fish intended for human consumption. This level is found most often in large predator fish, including shark and swordfish, pike and walleye, especially, if they swim in waters polluted with high mercury levels.
While most people’s fish consumption does not cause a health concern, high levels of mercury in the blood stream can have an effect on the developing nervous system of young children and unborn babies. Therefore, women of childbearing age and those who might become pregnant and young children should follow the advice of the 2004 FDA/EPA consumer advisory on methylmercury in fish, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.
Perchlorate
Perchlorate is a major component of rocket fuel and can get into plants when they are irrigated with perchlorate containing water or when plants are grown in soil that has been previously exposed to perchlorate-containing water or fertilizer.
Federal agencies are investigating the ways that plants take up perchlorate. Until more is known about the health effects of perchlorate and its occurrence in foods, FDA continues to recommend that consumers eat a balanced diet, and does not recommend that consumers should alter their infants’ and children’s diets and eating habits to avoid exposure to perchlorate.
Food Defense
Food defense can be defined broadly as protecting the food supply from deliberate contamination. Although always considered by regulators and processors in food safety procedures, the threat of an intentional attack on the U.S. food and water supply has become an even more important issue in recent years. The centralized nature of food production and processing and the wide distribution of foods, both domestic and imported, make the food sector a target. Food or water could be compromised by being a primary vector to deliver a biologic or chemical weapon, or a secondary target, where the amount of food or water becomes inadequate to feed the population. In addition to the physical and nutritional consequences of inedible or insufficient food and water, a compromised food supply also could have significant psychological, political, and economic consequences. Any link in the food production chain is potentially susceptible and an attack could cause an erosion of public confidence in the food supply with the potential economic ruin for certain food producers.
Food contaminated by biologic, chemical, or radiological agents may be difficult to handle by traditional methods of product testing and recall involving contaminant identification and destruction. In addition, control and disposal of contaminated food could seriously disrupt the flow of safe food to consumers. Research into rapid test methodologies and product traceability systems generates new products and procedures employed throughout the food sector. Because the intentional use of one of these agents could be mistaken for a normal episode of foodborne illness, food producers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, in addition to federal, state, and local authorities, have preparedness, planning, rapid communication, and central analysis measures in place to identify the early phase of a hostile act, and work quickly to minimize the impact on the food supply and public health.
Summary
The quest for the safest food supply in the world continues. Food processors and government regulators are working together to prevent foodborne illness. These partnerships, through HACCP regulations and expanded research, surveillance, detection, and education programs, will strengthen mechanisms to identify, control, or respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness or deliberate acts against the food supply. Continued partnerships between the public and private sector, with broad, cooperative, and integrated efforts, serve to protect and preserve the safety of the nation’s food supply.
1United States Government Accountability Office Oversight of Food Safety Activities,
March 2005 available at: http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d05213high.pdf
2United States Government Accountability Office, report number GAO-05-549T, May 2005 available at: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05549t.pdf
3As of early 2006, the Partnership's membership comprises 20 associations and nonprofit organizations in addition to Federal Government Liaisons and International Affiliates. Members represent the country's leading food industry associations, commodity groups, and professional associations in the food sciences and nutrition.
Originally printed in the 2007-2009 IFIC Foundation Media Guide on Food Safety and Nutrition
