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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
Remarks prepared for delivery by Dr. Garry L. McKee, FSIS Administrator, at the National Chicken Council’s Annual Meeting, October 16, 2003, Washington, D.C.
Good morning! On behalf of the Agency, I want to thank the meeting organizers for giving me an opportunity to speak with you today. It’s encouraging to be surrounded by industry members who are so enthusiastic about the great strides we have made in food safety in recent years.
And together we certainly have made great strides.
My vision when I took this job was for the Food Safety and Inspection Service to be a premier public health agency and an agency that can serve as a model for all other public health institutions. That is what I came to Washington to achieve, and I won’t deny that I’m extremely proud of the progress we’ve made.
Before we even get started this morning, I want to share with you some encouraging Listeria monocytogenes data that indicates we are on the right track. The percentage of positive Listeria monocytogenes samples has dropped by almost 70 percent when compared with years prior to the implementation of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) system. Our efforts are clearly beginning to pay dividends to the consumer!
More information about our microbiological testing program for Ready-to-Eat meat and poultry products can be found on our Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov. I believe successes such as this decline can be attributed to the combined efforts of all of those who have a stake in food safety.
At FSIS, we believe food safety is everyone’s responsibility—everyone from the farm to the table. After all, improving food safety, and in turn improving public health, is to everyone’s benefit. We view the farm-to-table continuum as a chain, where everyone needs to pull their own weight. The entire system can only be as strong as its weakest link. For any of those links to claim that food safety is not their responsibility is to break the chain of trust and endanger public health.
Over the past two years, FSIS has implemented new programs and strengthened several existing policies to ensure that our segment of the chain remains strong. The Bush Administration is certainly doing its part to ensure our success. The President’s FY 2004 budget requests $5.7 million to enhance the Agency’s workforce training capability alone. With this kind of record support, FSIS can’t help but work diligently to achieve our public health vision. I want to take a little time to discuss some of the changes we’ve undertaken toward this end.
One element that we believe is absolutely essential to FSIS’ public health vision is making sure that our policies and programs are based solidly in science. Within the HACCP framework, FSIS continuously reviews its existing authorities and regulations to ensure that emerging food safety challenges are adequately addressed.
As you know, FSIS recently issued regulations for establishments producing ready-to-eat products where the pathogen Listeria monocytogenes is a concern. We believe these regulations will only further the successes we announced this morning. We’ve also issued new procedures emphasizing the use of Salmonella testing, and a series of new measures to further prevent contamination of ground beef with the pathogen E. coli O157:H7.
Throughout the process of developing scientifically-based policies, FSIS has aggressively sought input from the scientific community and others. The Agency has sponsored many public meetings and scientific symposia that allow the agency to share information with, and gather input from, stakeholders on food safety and public health topics. Our policies and their effectiveness affect all our partners along the food safety chain.
But establishing science-based programs and policies is only the first step. In order for those policies to work, we must provide solid training to each and every inspector in the field. We know that we need a scientifically and technically trained workforce that can operate in modern food safety systems. One step we’ve taken in that direction was to increase our cadre of scientifically trained personnel, known as Consumer Safety Officers. Furthering this effort through an extensive training and education program is one of our new initiatives that I promise to discuss in greater detail later.
While both of these elements are absolutely vital to our success we also need help from other links in the food safety chain. Increased cooperation with other public health agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, is essential to achieving our public health vision. And we’ve made significant progress in this arena.
Our partnerships were tested and proven effective during an unprecedented investigation we conducted with the CDC and State and local public health agencies on the northeastern listeriosis outbreak that occurred in 2002.
Another extremely important link in the chain is the consumer. Food safety education serves as a complement to effective regulation in reducing the risk of foodborne illness. FSIS has been conducting an aggressive educational campaign of public events and media interviews with national and regional news organizations in order to reach more of the population with important public health messages.
Our educational efforts have also ‘hit the road.’ FSIS has launched the USDA Food Safety Mobile to strategic locations throughout the country to bring food safety messages directly to the public in one of our most ambitious grass roots efforts.
These are only a few examples of the work we’ve undertaken to strengthen our link in the chain. And I believe as a result of our focus, we are beginning to see successes that indicate our food safety efforts are moving in the right direction.
The CDC reported a significant decline in the number of foodborne illnesses over the past six years, and FSIS is also reporting declines in positive sample results for several major pathogens. I’ve already given you the decline we’re seeing in samples testing positive for Listeria monocytogenes, but we’ve also recently seen a decline in E. coli positives. In September we announced that 0.32 percent of E. coli O157:H7 samples collected and analyzed to date had tested positive, compared to 0.78 in 2002. This is a definite improvement!
FSIS is even improving its efficiency in detecting many of these pathogens. Just last week, we announced that we have adopted the BAX® system to screen for Salmonella in raw meat and poultry. This system will increase our efficiency in detecting pathogens and saves valuable agency time and resources. The BAX® system has been used to screen for Listeria monocytogenes since April 2002.
We are also taking time to assess many of our programs, such as the HACCP-based Inspection Models program or HIMP. While we are committed to the concepts behind HIMP, at this point it is too soon to say whether HIMP will be extended to other areas. We realize how vital internal evaluation of our programs is to our ability to protect public health to the greatest extent possible.
While I am impressed with the progress we’ve made in the last couple of years, I realize that now is not the time to rest. Now is the time to focus on beginning work on new initiatives that will ensure our continued progress. But before I discuss those new initiatives, I do recognize the hard work you’ve put into making the poultry industry one of the most efficient industries in the world.
FSIS just recently had to revise its standards of identification for poultry to more accurately describe the types of poultry sold in the marketplace today. This had to be done because significant advancements you’ve made in breeding and husbandry have shortened the time required for birds to reach market-ready weights, therefore increasing the efficiency of production. For example, thirty years ago, it took 12 to 13 weeks to produce birds with the physical characteristics of broilers, which are now being produced in as little as six to eight weeks.
And it’s not as though you haven’t faced challenges along the way. We at FSIS saw firsthand the struggle you faced with exotic Newcastle disease. FSIS committed 385 employees to assist the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on its Taskforce beginning in February. FSIS employees served the taskforce in various capacities including epidemiology, surveillance, pathology, investigation, euthanasia and disposal. With our combined efforts, Secretary Ann Veneman was able to release the quarantine on California and other affected states.
The point is that while battling with issues such as avian flu, exotic Newcastle disease, and international trade pressure, the poultry industry remained committed to progress.
Our recently released food safety vision document, titled “Enhancing Public Health: Strategies for the Future,” highlights FSIS’ commitment to progress and outlines several new initiatives, many of which are pertinent to the poultry industry. Let me give you a few examples.
I will begin with our recently established New Technology Office, which will expedite the implementation of safe interventions at slaughter and processing establishments. When we completed our risk assessment for Listeria in ready-to-eat products, it struck me how important interventions are in mitigating risk. We want to encourage the development and use of food safety interventions, and one way FSIS can do this is to make the adoption of safe and effective technologies easier on you, the industry.
Our New Technology staff is an experienced team of 12 who will serve as the single portal for all new technology submissions. We designed this group to better manage the new technology process and allow for fast track implementation. They are also making sure that all FSIS personnel are aware of new technologies and where they are being used.
To increase the pool of new technology submissions, we will be developing a New Technology Web site where parties may submit their information on line. In the interim, we have established an e-mail address, FSISTechnology@fsis.usda.gov, for interested groups to learn more about how to have their products or ideas considered.
Retooling training and education programs for all employees is another initiative. FSIS recognizes the importance of this initiative for the consistent enforcement of its regulations.
FSIS has crafted a two-fold plan to enhance workforce training. First, all training programs for all employees will be updated to incorporate a public health focus by integrating scientific and technical principles, including HACCP validation. Training on technical and regulatory approaches to inspection and use of enforcement responses will be included.
Second, FSIS is moving to a system of delivering training that is as close to the employee’s worksite as possible. This will involve regional training and regional trainers, as well as interactive sessions near the employee's work site and on-site training programs.
Some of the training, particularly training involving new technologies and methodologies, will be carried out in conjunction with industry. In this way, both processors and inspectors share in the knowledge gained about the science behind the FSIS regulations, and how they must be applied to improve public health. We believe this will not only improve understanding of the regulations but also increase in-plant cooperation.
Next is risk assessment coordination. We have established a Food Safety Risk Assessment Committee with USDA-wide membership. Risk assessments allow us to focus resources on those hazards along the farm-to-table continuum that pose the greatest threat to public health. Each member of this new committee brings a specific expertise to ensure that our research, regulatory and public outreach resources achieve the greatest public health benefit and avoid redundancies.
The need for such a committee is growing as risk assessment becomes more and more important as a means of providing the science behind policy decisions. Microbial risk assessment is still in its infancy compared to chemical risk assessments, so the need to share ideas and resources is even more critical.
The group has already had its first meeting and the results have been exciting. We’re finding there is a lot of interest in working together, and a lot of opportunities to rely on each Agency’s expertise to make the entire risk assessment process go much more smoothly.
We also will be holding a public meeting on risk analysis in early November. As we make progress in conducting risk assessments, we must also move forward in integrating the three components of risk analysis – risk assessment, risk management, and risk communication.
Another new initiative involves working with the Research, Education, and Extension mission area at USDA to coordinate food safety research priorities and needs. A public meeting was held recently to help initiate the development of a unified research agenda to complement industry and academic research, as well as encourage external research directed toward this unified agenda. We are in the process of sifting through all the research needs that were presented at that meeting.
In addition, through consultation with livestock producers, researchers, and other stakeholders, FSIS is developing a list of best management practices for animal production facilities such as feedlots to provide guidance in reducing pathogen loads before slaughter. This issue is important to the poultry industry where vertical integration allows you more control over the production phase than those in the cattle industry.
FSIS held a symposium in September as a foundation for the development of these guidelines, which can help producers minimize carriage of human pathogens by food animals.
Finally, FSIS is making plans to conduct continuous baseline studies to determine the nationwide prevalence and levels of various pathogenic microorganisms in raw meat and poultry.
In the past, limited baseline studies have been used to establish performance standards. While these performance standards have not been directly correlated with public health outcomes, they are an important part of verifying the sanitary operation of meat and poultry establishments. The new baseline studies will take into account regional variation, seasonality and other critical factors.
The continual nature of the baseline studies will provide both benchmark information on the national trends and a tool to assess performance of initiatives designed to reduce the level and prevalence of pathogens in meat and poultry products. These baseline studies will also feed into risk assessments that support regulatory initiatives for reducing foodborne illness. These surveys will be important in establishing the link between foodborne disease and ecological niches, as well as levels and incidence of pathogens in meat and poultry. The net result will be more targeted interventions and effective elimination of sources of foodborne microorganisms.
At FSIS we are constantly striving to “up the ante” and take food safety to the next level. The Listeria data we released this morning shows we are well on our way. We believe our new food safety vision will aid us as we look to further these successes, but we need your assistance as well.
We want to maintain a healthy and direct relationship with you, because we know you care deeply about your work and your responsibilities as providers of food for the nation’s and the world’s tables.
I appreciate having the opportunity to speak to you this morning, and I look forward to working closely with you in the months and years to come.
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For Further Information:
FSIS Congressional and Public Affairs Staff
Phone: (202) 720-3897
Fax: (202) 720-5704