Matthew Hay Brown ~ The Baltimore Sun
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2009-02-15-0902140139-story.html
February 14, 2009 Washington
What has changed from 2009 ~ Still no enforcement of Regulations ~
Truth in Labeling Laws ~ no funding to enforce?
** ‘Rotten’ A Documentary on Netflix ~ Expose of the Greed of the CAFO-GMO for Profit Industry! https://wordpress.com/posts/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com
5 Food Safety Rules In The Kitchen (Impossible to POLICE in Restaurants
- Rule 1: Wash hands between steps. …
- Rule 2: Sanitize work surfaces. …
- Rule 3: Use separate cutting boards for raw meats, vegetables and produce, and cooked foods. …
- Rule 4: Cook foods to safe temperatures. …
- Rule 5: Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. …
- Related Pages You May Enjoy.
www.household-management-101.com › food-safety-rules 5 Food Safety Rules In The Kitchen – Household Management 101
READ MORE ~ ABOUT AMERICAN GREED buried in US Infrastructure ~
** Western Capitalism CAFO-GMO – The Whore of Babylon – Greed & Profit!https://wordpress.com/post/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com/3926
** ’Beyond (Meatless) Burgers”- Just another flavor of GMO GREED to Perpetuate Medicare! https://wordpress.com/post/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com/2911
** Factory Farms (CAFO-GMO) ~ Not UNLIKE the Atomic Bombs! Jimmy Dean, Hormel ~ Really?https://wordpress.com/post/facebookcomdeehinkle2.com/3444′
READ MORE ON UNCLEAN FOOD & WASHINGTON & ‘TOKEN’ LAWSUITS
CNBC.com – Jun 30, 2017
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SzDHyJA3iM
– The salmonella outbreak that has killed as many as nine people and sickened hundreds nationwide has created what advocates say is an unprecedented opportunity to reform the way America safeguards its food supply.
“You’ve had the consumer community, the expert community clamoring for this for over a decade,” said Michael R. Taylor, a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
“What’s happened with this outbreak is it has just elevated the intensity of the political focus and the demand or expectation that something be done.”
The Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into the actions of Peanut Corp. of America, whose Blakely, Ga., plant has been identified as the source of the contamination that has led to the recall of more than 1,900 products.
Critics say the outbreak has revealed several gaps in the nation’s food safety system, including a personnel shortage that has led the FDA to contract out inspections to state officials, the lack of a program to trace food from the farm to the table, the ability of companies to keep tests results revealing contamination to themselves, and the inability of the federal government to order recalls without their cooperation.
“We appear to have a total systemic breakdown,” said Rep. Bart Stupak, the Michigan Democrat who chaired a hearing last week into the outbreak.
Looking on as Stupak spoke was 3-year-old Jacob Hurley of Portland, Ore. Peter and Brandy Hurley knew last month that their son had contracted salmonella -but they didn’t know how. So with the approval of his pediatrician’s office, they let him keep eating what his father called “his favorite comfort food”: Austin Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter.
Peter Hurley denounced Peanut Corp. of America – and the government watchdogs who were unable for months to trace the source of the contamination.
“What is this, China?” he asked. “We need to have a faster 911-oriented medical response for food contamination. … We need FDA inspectors out there with the authority to stop production immediately when there is a problem. We need the FDA to have the ability to criminally prosecute quickly and effectively.”
The FDA says the Lynchburg, Va., company continued to ship peanut butter despite at least 12 tests revealing salmonella in 2007 and 2008, and lawmakers have released internal e-mail messages from company owner Stewart Parnell complaining that the tests were “costing us huge $$$$$” and saying that “we … desperately at least need to turn the Raw Peanuts on our floor into money.”
As the criminal investigation continues, lawmakers have introduced a variety of reforms, from simply bolstering the FDA with more money and tougher laws to the more sweeping move of combining the food safety functions currently divided among the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Centers for Disease Control into a new agency charged with oversight of the entire food supply.
Adding to calls for reform have been members of the food industry itself. Amid costly recalls of products as disparate as beef, spinach, jalapeno peppers and pet food, organizations such as Kraft Foods and PepsiCo Inc. have joined with food safety advocates and several former FDA commissioners to demand stronger regulation.
They have a strong business incentive. While Peanut Corp. of America made only about 1 percent of the peanut products sold nationwide, retail sales of all peanut butter fell 22 percent in January, according to the Nielsen Co. The makers of Jif and Peter Pan, not implicated in the current outbreak, have embarked on advertising campaigns to persuade customers that their brands are safe.
“Recent events have undermined the confidence of our consumers,” said Scott Faber, chief lobbyist for the Grocery Manufacturers Association. “Frankly, in order to continually improve the safety of our food supplies, we need a strong and effective partner” in government.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose department is responsible for monitoring meat and poultry, caught advocates by surprise this month when he advocated merging food safety functions into a single agency. His comments came days after President Barack Obama said the government had been slow to identify food contamination.
“I think that the FDA has not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to,” Obama said an interview broadcast by NBC on Today. He said his daughter Sasha ate peanut butter several times a week – “and, you know, I don’t want to have to worry about whether she’s going to get sick as a consequence to having her lunch.”
Obama’s interest in the issue predates the current outbreak. Campaigning last summer during a different salmonella outbreak – the one that led to the jalapeno recall – the then-senator introduced legislation intended to improve communication and coordination among federal, state and local agencies.
Since the current outbreak, the White House has promised what spokesman Robert Gibbs called a “stricter regulatory structure.”
Taylor, who worked in the administrations of Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, called presidential engagement “critical.”
“We’re at a point unlike any we’ve had,” he said. “We now, I think, have the forces at the table who can make it happen.”
A common theme among advocates is a need to modernize a regulatory regime they say is outdated. The Food Safety and Inspection Service, for example, the Department of Agriculture agency that monitors meat and poultry, derives authority from a law passed in 1906 in response to the public outcry that followed Upton Sinclair’s Chicago meatpacking industry expose, The Jungle.
“The law is a hundred years old,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “The legal structure was built before they even knew about bacteria or pathogens.” Smith DeWaal spoke also of a disconnect between the Food Safety and Inspection Service, which stations inspectors inside meat and poultry plants for carcass-by-carcass examinations, and the FDA, whose inspectors visit production sites for other foods only periodically.
“So a pepperoni pizza line in a frozen pizza plant will be visited by USDA every single day,” she said. “The cheese pizza line in the same plant may be visited by the FDA once in 10 years. And maybe not even then.”
At the House hearing last week, the director of the FDA’s Center for Food Supply and Applied Nutrition said inspectors will now take samples of the product and the production environment as a matter of routine – not only when a problem is suspected. Stephen Sundlof said the agency still needs better access to company food records during routine inspections and “enhanced authority” to order procedures that companies must follow to prevent contamination of high-risk food.
Sundlof said the ability to order product recalls “would be a useful tool.”
The Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumers Union and other advocates are backing a bill introduced by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat who has been pushing reform for years. DeLauro would pull the food safety functions out of the FDA and into a new Food Safety Administration, which she says would focus on preventing disease-causing contamination.
Her Food Safety Modernization Act would require companies to control health hazards in their operations and meet federal standards for removing contaminants. Companies would be subject to regular inspections, based on the “risk profile” of the food they produce. The government could seize unsafe products and order recalls.
“There are good people and good science at the FDA,” DeLauro said. “They have not been able to do their jobs and carry out the mission. We need an agency that’s fully committed to actively preventing food-borne illness, not just reacting to it.”
major recalls
January 2009 (peanuts): Salmonella fears trigger the recall of more than 1,900 products made by Peanut Corp. of America in Georgia and Texas. More than 630 illnesses and at least nine deaths so far have been reported.
June 2008 (tomatoes, jalapeno peppers): More than $100 million worth of the Mexico-grown crops are recalled because of salmonella contamination. More than 1,200 illnesses – but no deaths – are reported.
February 2008 (beef): More than 143 million pounds from a California slaughterhouse is recalled after concerns arise that so-called “downer” cattle illegally entered the food chain. No illnesses or deaths are reported.
September 2006 (spinach): E. coli contamination in California sparks a recall that affects more than $86 million in crops. More than 200 illnesses and three deaths are reported.
Source: Associated Press
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