USDA offers Super Bowl food safety tips

WASHINGTON, DC - Advocates of Food Safety calling for the Department of Agriculture to protect consumers better with new applicable standards that are ultimately reduced to eliminate the Salmonella species for public health is of paramount importance, while the reduction of salmonella and Follow up Campylobacter in general. The petition also calls on the agency to require slaughterhouses to control risks in their supply chains, following best practices for food safety from farm to fork. The groups say the changes are necessary to meet public health goals for the next decade.

In a petition for approval submitted last week to the USDA, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) , the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports and Stop Foodborne Illness (STOP), as well as David Clubb, Amanda Craten and Diana Goodpasture, Mary Graba and Melissa Lee, individual foodborne disease victims, urge the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service to target the strains of salmonella that are of paramount concern to public health, rather than regulating salmonella as a single species. One of the most common strains of Salmonella in poultry products, Salmonella Kentucky, rarely causes disease in the consumer, while other strains such as Enteritidis and Heidelberg are much more likely to cause disease. They send consumers to the hospital. Other strains such as Typhimurium and Infantis are of concern as they are more likely to resist antibiotic treatment.

The groups also urge the Agency to require slaughterhouses to put in place scientific tools to prevent farm animals from becoming infected with these bacteria, including by vaccinating live poultry and monitoring farms for the presence dangerous bacteria. These practices have been around for years in Europe, where they have contributed to a significant decrease in foodborne diseases.

"Consumers want to be sure that the food they eat is safe," said Amanda Craten, petitioner and board member of STOP, whose 18-month-old son was seriously injured and permanently disabled from a chicken contaminated with salmonella . "My family just wants to make sure that the USDA is using the best possible tools to prevent others from suffering what we have suffered."

Early in the last decade, the USDA and other federal agencies committed to meeting the Healthy People 2020 Goals, which aim to improve the health and well-being of Americans, including reducing the incidence of human disease. Origin of the food caused by Salmonella and Campylobacter . However, by late 2020, advances on both fronts were unfortunate, according to CSPI: the incidence of disease caused by both types of bacteria remained as high, if not higher, than at the beginning of the decade.

"We have seen little progress in reducing the number of people with Salmonella or Campylobacter, " said Sarah Sorscher, assistant director of regulatory affairs at CSPI. "One of the main reasons for this is that the USDA has not yet made full use of the best science and technology available to fight foodborne diseases from farm to fork."

For healthy people 2030 new targets were set to fight caused by Salmonella and Campylobacter illnesses. Together, these two pathogens caused more than 70% of confirmed foodborne diseases to be caused by bacteria or parasites, followed by the Centers 'Disease Control and Prevention Centers' active foodborne disease surveillance network. . in the United States in 2019. Many diseases are caused by contaminated raw poultry, which can make unsuspecting consumers sick even after seemingly minor shortcomings in food safety at home.

"It is unacceptable that the USDA should lag behind science, other food safety regulators, and some members of the poultry industry themselves in demanding adequate controls to prevent diseases caused by these bacteria," said Michael Taylor. former food safety service administrator. USDA Food Safety and Inspection and current STOP co-chair. "Ultimately, the agency's priority must be to protect consumers from preventable diseases."

Other groups have called for similar changes. In 2019, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods recommended that a committee of scientific experts, which advises the USDA, the agency to consider before harvest controls and to develop approaches that prevent Salmonella strains that for public health Of concern are the contaminating raw poultry products.

"A science-based approach is essential to identifying actions and controls that will help reduce the rate of foodborne illnesses associated with Salmonella and Campylobacter ," said Brian Ronholm, director of food policy at Consumer Reports and former deputy. USDA Under-Secretary of State for Food Safety. "We need to leverage FSIS's public health expertise, available science, and industry best practices to fully protect consumers."

The current petition comes almost a year after a petition filed on behalf of consumer groups by food safety attorney Bill Marler calling for a ban on 31 "epidemic serotypes" of salmonella in meat and poultry. Two of the signatories to Marler's petition, Consumer Federation of America and Consumer Reports, have also signed the petition filed today, which builds on Marler's petition by establishing a process for the USDA to establish mandatory standards to prioritize Salmonella serotypes achieve and ultimately eliminate. This is set by the USDA, which also addresses Campylobacter risks and obliges slaughterhouses to control food safety risks all the way to the farm.

"Progress in reducing Salmonella and Campylobacter infections in meat and poultry has stalled for too long," said Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy for the Consumer Federation of America. "The science and technology to reduce foodborne diseases has advanced by leaps and bounds, but USDA food safety regulations have not followed. That needs to change.

Let's block ads! (Why?)