New Federal Strategies Set to Keep America’s Food Supply Safe

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced new food safety strategies that focus on prevention and depend on working closely with growers, food processors and consumers.

As a first step, Sebelius praised three FDA draft guidances aimed at minimizing or eliminating contamination in leafy greens, tomatoes, and melons that can cause foodborne illnesses. Vilsack announced that USDA FSIS is issuing guidance for inspectors to begin conducting routine sampling of bench trim for E. coli; streamlined, consolidated instructions to its personnel for inspection, sampling and other actions to reduce E. coli O157:H7 in beef; and streamlined instructions to its inspectors to provide a simplified procedure to find an eliminate E. coli before it reaches consumers.

The FDA commodity-specific draft guidances are based on the public health principles embraced by the White House Food Safety Working Group being led by Secretary Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.  FDA’s draft guidances are the first step toward setting enforceable standards for produce safety.

FDA Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg added that the draft guidances represent a shift in strategy for the FDA, from a food safety system that often has been reactive to one that is based on preventing foodborne hazards. “We must set as our highest priority the creating of enforceable standards for food safety that prevent the food Americans eat from ever becoming contaminated,” Hamburg said.

View the entire release at HHS.