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Food Safety Expert Sees More Trouble Ahead

October 3, 2006

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The recent contamination of fresh spinach was the first major food bacteria outbreak in recent years, but a food safety expert warns that it won't be the last.

Sanford Miller, senior fellow at the University of Maryland Center for Food, Nutrition, and Agriculture Policy, says consumers should prepare for a series of bacteria problems in the food supply.

Miller says the lines of defense against the multitude of organisms in the world are under constant threat of breaking down. He says the breach can come from a variety of sources, including the water used to irrigate produce, which is what he thinks happened in the case of the contaminated spinach.

But the E. coli that attached itself to the spinach crop, he says, could come from a variety of sources.

"If the producers were organic farms, it might be improperly processed organic fertilizer. A less likely event would be storage of the product at relatively high temperatures such as might have occurred if a refrigerated railway car lost its temperature control. Probably, a number of factors were involved," Miller said.

Another problem results from the lack of resources the Food and Drug Administration has to apply to this problem. Rather than vigorously working to prevent these occurrences, Miller says the FDA is forced to play fireman and respond to crises.

"The basic problem is the lack of resources and authority. There is also the problem associated with the fragmentation of responsibility and authority for food safety. At least 12 agencies have responsibilities in this area as do the state and local authorities. The amazing thing is not that we have events such as the spinach problem but rather that we don't have many more," Miller said.

Manufacturing techniques have also weakened defenses protecting the food supply. As the nature of the food supply changes to include more prepackaged minimally processed foods, many of the techniques, such as cooking, traditionally used to protect food are lost.

It has been estimated that 81 million food related illnesses occur in the U.S. each year, most of which are unreported.

"There are several issues that must be resolved," Miller said. "First, we need to assure that the FDA and other regulatory agencies have the resources sufficient to perform the job. Second, we need to give the agencies the authority they need to take action to assure that the rules are being enforced. This includes inspection authority, mandatory recall and so on. Third, we must seriously, once and for all, bite the bullet and move towards a single food safety agency."

"I only hope that it doesn't require an event as catastrophic as the World Trade Center to force this action as it did for the formation of the Department of Homeland Security," Miller said.

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