Spinach --- Tomatoes --- Peanuts --- Pistachios --- Spices --- what's next?
The FDA has a new attitude in responding to the events in the interest of public safety. It's pretty simple... Kill the herd, we'll find the infected one later. Please read these two articles.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/policy/07food.html?_r=2&emc=eta1 and http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/31/take-pistachios-off-your-menu-fda-advises/ .
Very short summary.... on March 24, 2009, Kraft Foods notifies FDA that they have found salmonella in pistachios during their testing and traced it back to one company operation in California. ON March 31, 2009, FDA tells consumers to take ALL pistachios off the menu.
Is this type of reaction over-reacting? Yes and No. If this action saves one life then it is hard to disagree with the action taken by the FDA. However, is it fair to shut down an entire industry when the notification also included the traceback to the supplier? If the FDA controlled the auto industry and found brakes to be faulty on one brand, would it be fair to tell the consumers not to buy ANY car?
I sympathize with Dr. David Acheson. Although I cannot agree with every move made by the FDA, my respect for this man is unwaverable. He has done more than any individual, in my opinion, to create and expand the awareness and the criticalness of the food safety issues that we face. This will eventually lead to more correct answers, more viable solutions and more solid food safety programs.
The new O'Bama administration, putting new faces and names at the top of the FDA, is already making changes, establishing their priorities and implementing short term solutions to protect the public.... even though it is at a potentially great expense to the industry.
Last week some of my group was in DC and we met with both political and industry groups. You cannot pick up a major paper it seems these days without finding an article on food safety, epidemiology, traceability, consumer protection on food and other areas. It is a hot item, a public item, an item both republicans and democrats can get behind and they are doing it.
The articles above indicate the importance of what we at http://www.usfoodtrace/ are doing. We address both traceability and epidemiology as well as a centralized data base. This combination is critical in determination of ground zero of an event when it does occur. Determining ground zero as quickly as possible is imperative in helping the industry avert losses when problems do occur.
Consider this based on two articles.... if you were a company spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on food safety to insure that your product was indeed safe, but another company of any size does not follow or ignores this area and has a problem that becomes known to the FDA....both companies are treated equally now based on the FDA response on pistachios. Not only those two companies, but any others producing the same product now have a greater potential to get shut down.
It reminds me of the tomato issue last year.... if one tomato is bad, shut the industry down until we find out!!! BUT...oh wait.... it wasn't tomatoes after all.... too bad.
The FDA has a new attitude in responding to the events in the interest of public safety. It's pretty simple... Kill the herd, we'll find the infected one later. Please read these two articles.. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/07/health/policy/07food.html?_r=2&emc=eta1 and http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/31/take-pistachios-off-your-menu-fda-advises/ .
Very short summary.... on March 24, 2009, Kraft Foods notifies FDA that they have found salmonella in pistachios during their testing and traced it back to one company operation in California. ON March 31, 2009, FDA tells consumers to take ALL pistachios off the menu.
Is this type of reaction over-reacting? Yes and No. If this action saves one life then it is hard to disagree with the action taken by the FDA. However, is it fair to shut down an entire industry when the notification also included the traceback to the supplier? If the FDA controlled the auto industry and found brakes to be faulty on one brand, would it be fair to tell the consumers not to buy ANY car?
I sympathize with Dr. David Acheson. Although I cannot agree with every move made by the FDA, my respect for this man is unwaverable. He has done more than any individual, in my opinion, to create and expand the awareness and the criticalness of the food safety issues that we face. This will eventually lead to more correct answers, more viable solutions and more solid food safety programs.
The new O'Bama administration, putting new faces and names at the top of the FDA, is already making changes, establishing their priorities and implementing short term solutions to protect the public.... even though it is at a potentially great expense to the industry.
Last week some of my group was in DC and we met with both political and industry groups. You cannot pick up a major paper it seems these days without finding an article on food safety, epidemiology, traceability, consumer protection on food and other areas. It is a hot item, a public item, an item both republicans and democrats can get behind and they are doing it.
The articles above indicate the importance of what we at http://www.usfoodtrace/ are doing. We address both traceability and epidemiology as well as a centralized data base. This combination is critical in determination of ground zero of an event when it does occur. Determining ground zero as quickly as possible is imperative in helping the industry avert losses when problems do occur.
Consider this based on two articles.... if you were a company spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on food safety to insure that your product was indeed safe, but another company of any size does not follow or ignores this area and has a problem that becomes known to the FDA....both companies are treated equally now based on the FDA response on pistachios. Not only those two companies, but any others producing the same product now have a greater potential to get shut down.
It reminds me of the tomato issue last year.... if one tomato is bad, shut the industry down until we find out!!! BUT...oh wait.... it wasn't tomatoes after all.... too bad.
