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Global Commerce Complicates Food Safety

Expert: Pet Food Poisonings a "Wake-Up Call"

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 3, 2007

Food Safety • CDC Gives "All Clear" On Salmonella Outbreak • One Death Reported in Oklahoma E. coli Outbreak • Feds Approve Irradiation of Spinach, Lettuce • FDA Issues Warning About Frozen Seafood • Whole Foods Extends Beef Recall • Whole Foods Recalls Fresh Ground Beef • Six New E. coli Cases Reported In Massachusetts • FDA Says It Found Salmonella Source In Mexico • U.S. Peppers Get Clean Bill Of Health • Jalapeño Peppers from Mexico Recalled • Tomatoes Get the All-Clear From FDA • Salmonella Toll Quietly Climbs • USDA to List Retailers in Meat Recalls • Emergency Regs Needed for Tracking Produce, Food Groups Say • Nebraska Beef Recall Expanded to 5.3 Million Pounds • Consumer Group Presses Feds to Fix Food System • Kroger Expands Ground Beef Recall • Salmonella Outbreak is Biggest Ever Tied to Produce • E. coli Outbreak May Be Linked To Kroger Ground Beef • Salmonella: Trickier Than Imagined • Congressional Report Faults FDA Inaction • Tomatoes Off the Menu as Feds Search for Source • FDA 'Inaction' Blamed for Salmonella Outbreak • Restaurants Shun Tomatoes In Wake Of Salmonella Outbreak • FDA Warns Of Tomato-Linked Salmonella • USDA Bans Downer Cow Slaughter • CDC Links 2006 Salmonella Outbreak to Dog Food --- • More ...

As food safety threats pile up on the desks of government regulators, consumers feel more vulnerable to the increasing numbers of contaminated food products slipping past inspectors.

While part of the problem may be an under-funded and under-staffed inspection system, food safety experts point to another complicating factor – the global economy.

“You can’t buy a hamburger without touching the global system,” said Col. John T. Hoffman, a senior research fellow with the National Center for Food Protection and Defense, in Minneapolis.

Speaking at the Institute of Food Technologists Global Food Safety & Quality conference, Hoffman said that the food industry is becoming an increasingly complex global network of supply chains, and the need to collaborate with public and private trade partners has never been more pressing.

“We have to be able to do this in a way that facilitates trade, protects our trading partners, and reduces the risk to ourselves and our partners, because the food industry is becoming a fully global system,” he urged.

Businesses have an increasing array of risk assessment tools that can help, including a new system that assesses companies’ vulnerabilities.

While such programs offer businesses an essential indicator, Hoffman says the government is pushing for a system that’s more efficient in making data accessible on a broader scale.

Such a system might have resulted in faster reactions to deadly contaminations. Hoffman sees the recent pet food contamination involving melamine as “a tremendous wake-up call” regarding potential risks, and dealing outside the regulations of our own borders — especially with a major trading force like China.

“This really was an unsophisticated case of some suppliers in China trying to save some money with a new ingredient, but the fallout was significant,” Hoffman said.

Imports from China to the U.S. have increased significantly in the past four years, but the U.S. did not maintain that same pace in its preparation for increased risk, Hoffman said.

Specific areas of security that need heightened focus include surveillance and supply chain verification and validation, an effort that Hoffman urges businesses to initiate.

“Supply chain verification is something that is just as important as anything the government can do. This action alone may have prevented the whole melamine situation,” he said.

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