All sorts of schemes to improve food safety are flying around in the wake of the food scares of the last few months. In the process of deciding what can be done, which is sure to produce superheated rhetoric, advocates should play straight with consumers on what goals are attainable.
Two truths are immutable. First, no plan, regardless of how meticulously it is implemented, will eliminate all food risk. Second, consumers themselves are part of the food chain; personal responsibility cannot be avoided.
The latest scheme was unveiled last week in a bill introduced in Congress by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Vic Fazio, D-Calif. It would create a single agency responsible for food safety regulation....
The new agency would function like the Securities Exchange Commission in that it would exist solely as a regulatory agency....
However, creation of such a single-minded, powerful entity should be done carefully and only after thorough study. The recent example of USDA action against Hudson Foods in Columbus dramatically showed how regulatory action can literally eliminate a company and the jobs that it creates. Hudson Foods no longer exists....
With all the alarm that can be triggered by hyperbole...however, consumers should not forget the power they have to take food safety into their own hands. E. coli 0157:H7, for example, is killed by 15 seconds of 160-degree heat. Government and industry programs to improve food safety should keep the perspective embodied in the Fight BAC campaign begun last month which encourages proper food handling and preparation such as hand washing, cooking to proper temperatures and prompt refrigeration. Consumers who follow those procedures will definitely be safer. They might even save tax money by reducing the need for more government regulation.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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