![]() | April 13, 2000 |
The President's Council on Food Safety has identified egg safety as one component of the public health issue of food safety that warrants immediate federal interagency action. In response, the "Egg Safety From Production to Consumption: An Action Plan to Eliminate Salmonella Enteritidis Illnesses Due to Eggs" was developed and announced in December 1999. The Action Plan identifies the systems and practices to be implemented to reduce and ultimately, eliminate eggs as a source of human Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) illnesses. An interim goal of the Egg Safety Action Plan is a 50 percent reduction in egg-associated SE illnesses by 2005.
On March 30, 2000 in Columbus, Ohio and April 6, 2000 in Sacramento, California, FDA and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) hosted public meetings to solicit and discuss information for reducing or eliminating the risk of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in shell eggs or egg products using a farm-to-table approach and to provide stakeholders with an update on the current status of the Egg Safety Action Plan.
Participants in the public meeting actively expressed opinions and concerns about the Action Plan and expressed that both Strategies (I and II from the Action Plan) must focus on the entire farm-to-table continuum and must not focus solely on the farm and the packer. Several common themes emerged through the discussions:
Written comments are still being accepted. Written comments must be submitted no later than April 20, 2000. Information on submission of comments is contained within the Federal Register notice and can be found on our web-site. (www.cfsan.fda.gov/~lrd/fr000321.html)
The Egg Safety National Standards Work Group (composed of representatives from FDA, USDA, and several States) will use the information from the public meeting and written comments to draft proposed national standards for the producer, shell egg packers and egg products processors. The draft standards are expected to be completed and published in the Federal Register (for review and comment) by December 2000.
Egg Safety Timeline
Food Safety Initiative Staff E-mail: chammett@cfsan.fda.gov |
Office Number: (202) 260-8920 · FAX (202) 260-9653 CFSAN Web site: http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/ |