The Results Of Food Safety Mishaps

Food safety issues have impacted all of us in some way or another. It doesn’t matter if you farm on 5 acres or 5,000 acres. All growers have to be concerned about ensuring — to the best of their ability — the produce released into the marketplace is contaminant-free.

As we all know, our food safety issues didn’t end after the E. coli outbreak in spinach in 2006. Last summer, tomato growers had to endure a Salmonella outbreak that turned out not to be tomatoes. The most recent incident was the Salmonella outbreak linked to alfalfa sprouts.

Consumer Concerns

Because we continue to see headlines about contaminated food, it makes sense that consumers are concerned about what they bring home from the store. The Food Marketing Institute’s “2009 U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends” report indicates that surveyed shoppers are concerned about produce purchases. In fact, 72% of those surveyed said they are only “somewhat” confident in the safety of the food they buy. The report also states that about one-third of consumers stopped buying a specific food product because of food safety concerns.

On a positive note, many consumers said they are more comfortable with food produced or grown in the U.S. than imported products. Nearly 90% said they are either very or somewhat comfortable with U.S. food compared with only 42% for foreign foods.

What is particularly interesting, though, is that 89% of the surveyed shoppers say they trust grocery stores to sell safe foods but do not have the same level of trust in the government to ensure that food is safe. About 76% said they trust FDA to make sure the food they buy is safe.

Those survey results coincide with what is currently taking place in Washington. After the tomato problem from last year, which involved FDA erroneously citing tomatoes, food safety has secured its spot in the forefront of those in Washington.

On The Legislative Front

Long story short, lawmakers have taken to the warpath, so to speak, proposing several pieces of legislation on comprehensive food safety reform. One piece of legislation, sponsored by Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), would split FDA into two agencies. One would be called the Food Safety Administration and the other would handle the regulation of drugs and devices. (For specifics on the four major pieces of legislation being considered, click here.)

Opponents of some of the wording in those bills say the end result may be that too much authority could be given to one agency. Others have said
new regulations may be too burdensome for small growers.

At a subcommittee meeting in April that reviewed federal food safety standards for fresh and organic produce, California Congressman Dennis Cardoza, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture, said that part of the problem is that there currently are 15 federal agencies involved in monitoring the safety and security of the U.S. food supply.

Fifteen is too many and one with too much authority may not be enough. We need to figure out a way to provide a happy medium.