Embargoed for release: 9 a.m. (EST) Friday, Jan. 21, 1999
CHANGING FACE OF FOOD SAFETY DEMANDS NEW GAME PLAN
ANAHEIM, CALIF. - The high-stakes game of food safety has changed drastically, and continuing to play by the old rules book could have dire consequences, experts from MSU's National Food Safety and Toxicology Center told a national gathering of scientists today.
"We are past the days of Upton Sinclair and sawdust in the cheese, but now there's a whole new set of problems and questions," MSU sociologist Lawrence Busch said at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "We are seeing new, more virulent versions of E. coli out there, as well as other problems in the food chain.
"In the past we've viewed food safety as a purely technical problem. Now, it's an illusion to think you can separate the technical from the social."
Busch, along with Robert Hollingworth, director of the NFSTC presented papers at the AAAS annual convention arguing that the new world of food safety must include more emphasis on the human element that is inherent in the food system.
Today's food system, Busch said, is defined by the concentration of the food industry. Fifteen percent of the farms in the United States produce 80 percent of the food supply. In addition, globalization of the food supply means consumers have grown accustomed to exotic foods available year round. An American table routinely will have a bowl of peaches from Chile on it. Apple juice may come from five different nations.
The result: Changing food safety challenges. Massive meat production facilities host a different kind of food safety risk than those posed by the neighborhood butcher.
"When there is increased volume in meat production, not only is there a greater possibility of massive contamination, but if something does slip though, it slips through on a vast scale," Busch said. "Instead of having a few people in the neighborhood get sick, you can have thousands."
The increase of new, more virulent strains of bacteria - such as E. coli - likely could be the bacteria's evolutionary reaction to the industrialized meat packing facilities.
Likewise, he said, imported foods such as produce can mean increased food safety risks, both from pesticides and microbial contaminants.
"Yes, we can have fresh apples 12 months of the year, but they're shipped half way around the world," he said. "Larger distances between shipping means more places for contamination to occur, more opportunities for bacteria to multiply and ,therefore, more potential for accidents to increase."
Another change in the food system is the growing popularity of enhancing foods with vitamin or other food supplements or medicines.
"This is really asking for trouble," Busch said. "Because to the naked eye, there is no visible difference."
Similarly, Hollingworth points out that the nation must re-examine how it evaluates relative risk in the food safety system. Without this knowledge, he says, the country cannot intelligently focus its research agenda to solve the most significant problems that are emerging that threaten the food supply.
Currently, it is impossible to accurately track cases of foodborne illness caused by microbes in the United States. Estimates of deaths due to foodborne microbes range from 500 to 9,000. Defining the risks from chemical contaminants is even more difficult and estimates vary widely.
"It is surprising how little of our health resources we assign to trying to improve this situation, without which rational resource allocation is impossible," he said.
Hollingworth pointed out that since up to 80 percent of food poisonings arise through mishandling food in the home, more resources should be allocated to improving consumer education.
"We spend very little on trying to discover whether our messages to the public really change behavior for the better. In a sense," he said. "In a sense, we are shooting in the dark.
"This is just one example of how we underinvest in the social and behavioral sciences," he said. "We seem remarkably complacent about understanding the critical human dimensions of food safety."
Busch echoes that sentiment. With problems ranging from hand washing in the kitchen to worker accountability in the massive food processing plants, Busch says the nation must redesign the way it deals with food safety issues.
"It would be easy to go down the path of being blase until we have a significant outbreak," he said. "There's big bucks to be made from pooh-poohing this."
The National Food Safety and Toxicology Center at Michigan State University is involved in research from the farm to the family. In addition to a broad range of research initiatives, the center also is heavily involved with industry, outreach and education. For more information, contact the center at (517) 432-3100 or visit its website at http://foodsafe.msu.edu.
Contact:
Tom Oswald, MSU Media Communications
(517) 355-2281
[email protected]
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