Food and Drug Administration Touts New Protection Plan as 2007 FoodNet Report Reveals a Mixed Bag of Results

By John Williams Jr.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released its 2007 FoodNet surveillance report and the statistics revealed a mixed bag of results. While U.S. foodborne illness rates continued a decade long decline, minimal progress was recorded last year in reducing foodborne illness incidents attributed to Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella, E. coli O157:H7, Yersinia, Vibrio and other foodborne pathogens.

Salmonella, with 6,790 reported cases, was the leading cause of foodborne infections followed by Campylobacter (5,818), Shigella (2,848), and Cryptosporidium (1,216). Compared to the three previous years of FoodNet data, reported incidents of Cryptosporidium, a pathogen most commonly associated with contaminated water, increased by 44% in 2007. E. coli O157:H7 cases also spiked last year due to several major outbreaks involving a variety of products.

In response to the FoodNet data, Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director of CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, stated: "The results show that prevention efforts have been partly successful, but there has been little further progress in recent years. More needs to be done to make our food safer."

Over and Under
Acknowledging the need for more substantial safety inroads, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published its "Food Protection Plan" in November of last year. The comprehensive plan employs science and an integrated, risk-based approach encompassing prevention, intervention and response to safeguard domestic and imported foods. Under the measure, the oversight agency would be granted authority to:

• Require preventive controls against intentional adulteration at points of high vulnerability in the food chain
• Issue additional preventive controls for high-risk foods
• Require food facilities to renew their FDA registrations every two years and allow FDA to modify the registration categories
• Issue a mandatory recall if voluntary recalls are not effective
• Have enhanced access to food records during emergencies
• Accredit highly qualified third parties for voluntary food inspections
• Refuse admission of imported food if FDA inspection access is delayed, limited or denied
• Require electronic import certificates for shipments of designated high-risk products

Comprehensive Steps
From improving its presence overseas to enhancing data collection, incident reporting, and emergency response capabilities, the FDA outlines numerous steps in the Food Protection Plan to achieve its goals. These ambitious measures include:

• Developing written food protection guidelines for industry
• Integrating food import trend data into a risk-based approach that focuses inspection resources on imports that pose the greatest risk
• Training FDA and state investigators on new, technically complex and specialized food
manufacturing processes, as determined by risk-based needs assessment and modern inspection strategies
• Basing food / feed inspections and sampling on risk

Under Siege
In recent years, an expanding pool of critics, including several members of Congress, have described the government's food safety system as bloated and woefully unprepared to deal with the safety challenges of the 21st Century. Two recent and highly publicized incidents intensified these criticisms.

In 2006, E. coli O157:H7 was implicated in a foodborne illness outbreak involving bagged fresh spinach. The outbreak resulted in 200 illnesses, 104 hospitalizations, and three deaths in 28 states. Last year, 290 people from 39 states became ill after consuming peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella tennessee. Forty-six people were hospitalized, but no reported deaths were traced to the outbreak.

Despite these criticisms, the FDA, which regulates $417 billion in domestic food and $49 billion in imported food, is committed to "building upon and improving an already sound food safety protection capability." The agency contends that its new plan presents a robust agenda that will improve upon the safest food supply in the world.

Call for Comments
The FDA is currently asking stakeholders to submit their opinions on the measures proposed in the Food Protection Plan. Specifically, the agency is seeking input on how the proposals will affect processors, manufacturers, retailers and other stakeholders. Comments can be submitted at http://www.regulations.gov/search/index.jsp.

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The Food Marketing lnstitute (FMl), owner and operator of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program, German Retail Federation and French Wholesale and Retail Federation have partnered to streamline international audits by extending food safety standards throughout the global supply chain.

The harmonization of the European lnternational Food Standards (lFS) and the SQF program is expected to simplify auditing and certification processes for retailers and suppliers in the Americas, Asia, Europe and other markets. The SQF and IFS standards satisfy the requirements of the Global Food Safety Initative.

An international network of retailers, food safety experts and trade associations, known collectively as CIES, developed the Global Food Safety lnitiative (GFSI) in 2000. Under the GFSI program, suppliers are expected to obtain audit certification for food safety standards recognized by GFSI, including Safe Quality Food (SQF), British Retail Consortium (BRC), and lnternational Food Standard (lFS). Supplier audits are conducted by approved third party auditing companies.

In a FMI press release, Paul Ryan, executive director of the SQF lnstitute, said, "U.S. regulatory agencies are looking at ways to use private sector third party certification to complement their oversight of the safety of imported foods and this collaboration enhances our ability to expand the use of these certification programs."

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Silliker, the world leader in the field of food safety and quality services, has acquired 80% of the Portuguese company EGI, specializing in food microbiology testing, a strategic activity for Silliker. Founded in 1992 and located in Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, EGI is a privately held company and is recognized as the country's leading food testing and technical consulting laboratory.

From its state-of-the-art facility, EGI serves many of the nation's major food companies and retailers. Under terms of the acquisition, Fatima Castro and Joaquim Neves, two of the laboratory's original founders, will continue in their roles of Managing Director and member of the Board respectively, at the newly renamed company – Silliker Portugal.

This acquisition will also enable Silliker to reinforce and expand its international network with an increased presence in the Iberian Peninsula. "Our strategic ambition is to become the undisputed world-leader in food safety and quality services. The acquisition is one more step towards our goal. EGI brings us not only new laboratory capabilities, but also a team with an expertise that will help us to better satisfy our customers' needs," said Philippe Sans, President and CEO of Silliker.

The complementary expertise and capabilities of Silliker Portugal and Silliker Iberia, based in Barcelona, will ensure full testing and consulting services for regional retailers, processors, and foodservice companies.

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The Silliker Food Science Center, Colorado State University and Cornell University have partnered to offer a new workshop on nucleic acid-based detection methods for foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms. It will be held June 23-27, 2008 at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. Scheduled workshop instructors and speakers, which will focus exclusively on nucleic acid-based approaches, include: Kendra Nightingale, Colorado State University; Martin Wiedmann, Cornell University; and Mark Carter and Sarita Raengpradub of the Silliker Food Science Center. Registrations are limited.

The gathering will offer in-depth training on nucleic acid-based detection and characterization methods for foodborne pathogens and spoilage organisms, including PCR, multiplex PCR assays, real-time PCR, and quantitative reverse transcriptase-based PCR assays, along with DNA sequencing of PCR products. Workshop attendees will become familiar with commercial DNA-based detection methods (including interpretation of results) as well as approaches to design custom PCR-based assays and protocols for foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms.

The workshop will consist of a one and a half-day symposium on June 23 and 24, followed by three days of hands-on laboratory sessions. The technical meeting is designed for industry professionals, graduate students, and college faculty members who are seeking to improve their understanding of molecular detection methods. For information, including a detailed workshop schedule, log on to www.ansci.colostate.edu/content/view/601/42/.

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Two respected leaders in food safety, Dr. Russell S. Flowers and Dr. Michael P. Doyle are scheduled to serve as featured speakers at the 95th Annual Meeting of the International Association of Food Protection (IAFP). Keynoting the "Ivan Parkin Lecture," Dr. Flowers, Chairman of the Board and Chief Scientific Officer of Silliker Group Corp., will address "Utility of Microbiological Testing for Food Safety Assurance: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." Dr. Doyle, Regents Professor of Food Microbiology and Director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, will discuss "From Wild Pigs in Spinach to Tilapia in Asia: The Challenge of the Food Safety Community" at the John H. Silliker Lecture. The meeting will be held August 3-6, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Columbus, OH. For more information on the meeting, click here.

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