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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
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Food Safety and Inspection
Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700 |
Speeches
Food Safety and Inspection
Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Remarks prepared for delivery by Margaret Glavin, acting Administrator, Food Safety and Inspection Service, before the public meeting on Applied Epidemiology and Other Vital Public Health Tools to Inform Food Safety Actions, January 29, 2002, Atlanta, Ga.
Good morning, and welcome to this public meeting on using epidemiological information to make food safety decisions. Today, we are breaking new ground, and I’m pleased that you could join us for this important meeting. I am also pleased that Under Secretary for Food Safety Elsa Murano was able to join us. She has a great interest in this subject, and I look forward to her participation. We will begin the meeting by hearing from Dr. Murano.
Thank you, Dr. Murano. I want to say a few words about the purpose of this meeting and what we hope to accomplish.
This meeting is the start of a process to determine how best to integrate the principles of epidemiology into our food safety programs. The science of epidemiology is now bringing to the table new information that can help us to reduce the incidence of foodborne illness associated with meat, poultry and egg products. This is information we cannot ignore.
Although epidemiology is not new, its use as a regulatory tool within FSIS is relatively new. Over the past few years, FSIS has used epidemiological data to make regulatory decisions about product recalls and the effectiveness of food safety control systems within plants.
Certainly, our public health mission requires that we continue to embrace this new science and the opportunity it provides. Epidemiology is expanding the information available to us to make regulatory decisions. Right now, such decisions are largely based on organoleptic examination and product sampling. The possibility that unsafe product can also be found based on epidemiological data is good news indeed, especially in light of the strides that have been made in collecting and understanding such data.
Let me emphasize here that we are not changing the definition of “adulteration,” which is defined by statute. Rather, we are considering new information that can be used in determining that product is adulterated.
Some fundamental questions are raised by the Agency’s reliance on epidemiological evidence to make regulatory decisions. We recognize that there is a big jump from using epidemiology to investigate outbreaks, to using it to take regulatory action.
For example, how much and what kind of evidence does FSIS need to declare a product as adulterated?
We also need to clarify the roles of FSIS and of industry. It is appropriate that as FSIS uses this new tool in its food safety programs, the policies and procedures we follow to make decisions be transparent, and our expectations of industry be clearly articulated.
We do not expect to answer all of our questions in two days. In fact, we expect more questions to be raised than answered. Rather, this public meeting is the start of a process to arrive at a framework for the regulatory use of epidemiology.
Our goal for this first meeting is two-fold. First, we want this to be an educational meeting to increase the comfort level all of us have with epidemiology. It is important that regulators, industry, scientists and consumers share an understanding.
Second, we want to present our public health agenda and our current thinking on basing regulatory decisions on epidemiological data. Then we can get the input of all of our constituents—as well as input from the expert panelists we have invited to participate—and begin a dialogue. Additional opportunities for dialogue and input will be scheduled in the future.
Let me now review the agenda.
Today, we will focus on the use of epidemiology in foodborne illness outbreaks. We will begin with a presentation on FSIS’ public health imperative, followed by a discussion of our regulatory framework.
Following a break, we will have two presentations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the use of applied epidemiology and molecular subtyping. After lunch, we will have an opportunity for questions and answers on this morning’s presentations, followed by a presentation from academia on the role of applied epidemiology in outbreak investigations and public health interventions. After that, we will present some hypothetical scenarios in outbreak investigations, and have a panel discussion with epidemiologists and food safety experts on these scenarios.
Day 2 will focus on the application of epidemiology to in-plant reviews. Hypothetical scenarios of in-plant assessments will be presented to a panel for discussion. We will have the opportunity for public comments on both days as indicated on the agenda.
Are there any questions on the agenda? We will now proceed with the first presentation.
For Further Information:
FSIS Congressional and Public Affairs Staff
Phone: (202) 720-3897
Fax: (202) 720-5704