How Safe is the Food We Eat?

By Mike Joyce

That is a good question to ask in today’s global economy. On July 18, President Bush established a Cabinet-level panel to “recommend how to guarantee the safety of imported food and other products brought into the country and how to better police them,” reported the Associated Press.

With melamine in pet and animal feeds, diethylene glycol in toothpaste, salmonella in spices, mercury in seafood, and illegal pesticides on produce (this is not a common problem), one should stop and think, “Can I trust this food? Do I know where it came from? Is it safe to eat?”

There are three potential sources of risks to the food we eat: 1) the risks associated with handling, processing and preparing food; 2) the use of illegal substances when producing food (pesticides are not a common problem); and 3) the intentional contamination of food by an individual or individuals. All three are addressed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Food Science

NC State University’s Department of Food Science, Nutrition, and Bioprocessing is widely known for its efforts in food safety. Dr. John Rushing leads the Food Science Extension efforts at NCSU. Each year his department conducts training programs for processors, including Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP).

Additionally, NC State’s Cooperative Extension prepares retail food handlers to be certified food protection managers, using programs such as ServSafe. The Cooperative Extension works closely with local health departments to train retail food handlers on how to safely handle and prepare food.

Dr. Angela Fraser leads this effort. “Food-borne illness is nearly 100 percent preventable if food handlers apply safe food handling practices from the time they receive food to the time they serve it to their customers,” she said “Training is one way to make this happen.”

Imported Foods

The problem associated with imported foods is critical as well. The FDA does not have the resources to inspect all food imports, presently inspecting about 1 percent of the food coming into the U.S. We must therefore rely on foreign governments to develop and implement programs that ensure the safety of imported food products.

This is not an easy objective to accomplish, however, as exemplified by the problems in China. The head of China’s Food and Drug department was recently executed because of the graft and kickbacks he received while in office that allowed illegal activities to occur. These activities resulted in the loss of pet, animal and human lives around the world.

John Yarboro, North Carolina Emergency Management Homeland Security Branch Chief, identified the problem as developing adequate capabilities to prevent, protect, respond, and recover against pathogens, chemical, biological and radiological contaminants, and other hazards that affect the safety of food and agricultural products.

“This involves many aspects,” he said, “such as the timely eradication of outbreaks of crop diseases and pests, assessments of the integrity of the food producing industry, the removal and disposal of potentially compromised materials from the food supply, and decontamination of affected food manufacturing facilities or retail points of purchase or service.

“The potential consequences to our state’s economy and the general well-being of our citizens are enormous. We [Homeland Security] work closely with the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Division of Public Health to help prevent, mitigate and eradicate threats to food and agriculture safety. You’ve got a lot of people out there who want to harm us, even at the expense of their own lives.”

Increased Awareness

Along this line, we are working with the FDA as part of a grant to the Nebraska Manufacturers Extension Partnership to increase awareness of these potential hazards. As the IES food industry specialist, I am working collaboratively with the various extension groups to implement the ALERT and CARVER programs that have been designed by the FDA to increase the awareness of the threat of bio-terrorism. (ALERT is a simple awareness program, so there is no regulatory follow-up to ensure that safeguards are in place. This is all voluntary.)

There are more than 27,000 retail food operators in North Carolina, and more than 70 percent are independently owned and operated. Most will never implement a plan to protect their food unless the law requires them to do so and there is follow-up enforcement.

The food industry is an important component of North Carolina’s economy that we must protect.

For more information on these efforts, contact IES food industry specialist Mike Joyce at (919) 250-1113, or go to our website at www.ies.ncsu.edu.