E.coli Outbreak Exposes Serious Flaw In Food Safety Guidelines From The USD

Word count: 623
September 25, 2006

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible for providing guidelines to the Food Industry on everything from fertilizer to packaging. Food safety and handling are also key responsibilities that the USDA must oversee for the U.S. food market.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a division of the USDA, put together a program called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) for food handling and safety measure. The FDA according to their website deems their safety system as a “state of the Art Approach to Food Safety”. HACCP origins date back to the 1960s and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) when they had to deal with food handling measures in space.

HACCP, as the FDA acknowledges, doesn’t account for newer food borne illnesses such as Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (commonly known as E.coli) and Salmonella enteritidis which are two of the leading causes for food borne illnesses in food.

Most know food borne illnesses as food poisoning. Ironically, particular types of food poisoning such as E.coli wasn’t identified until the 1980s when labs discovered a methodology of identifying key bacteria traits leading to such illnesses.

However, herein lies the flaw, to identify bacteria that causes food borne illness the food industry and labs mainly rely on taking suspected food samples back to laboratories with specialized systems for growing bacteria cultures to confirm such bacteria is present. The problem is this takes between 24 and 48 hours to grow cultures of bacteria in labs. With in that time frame, food producers are delivering 300,000 to 5 million packages of tainted food to the markets and stores. Consumers are digesting contaminated food and thus the vicious life threatening cycling of food poisoning begins.

There is a simple solution to this problem. Had the USDA looked at measures utilized in most U.S. Federally funded drug court programs across the country. They would have found a simple solution. Drug courts rely on instant screens for drug testing. A person suspected of drug use is escorted into a rest room and told to produce urine. This urine sample is immediately tested on site with a drug screen panel with has assay pads that indicate if there are drugs present in their system. The drug screen results are given with in 5 minutes. If the alleged person fails the instant urine screen by showing positive for drugs on the instant screen then their sample is sent to the labs for confirmation (which takes between 24 and 48 hours for results). This method of instant screening is called “Preliminary Presumptive”.


EDITORIAL – ROBERT GREENE PAGE TWO


The same type of test exists in the food industry. Preliminary presumptives can tell a food producer within 20 minutes whether harmful levels of E.coli exist. What’s even better is that preliminary presumptives are very inexpensive. Most products are under $4.00 per test.

The problem is the USDA does not allow or accept preliminary presumptives as part of their program and therefore only a handful of food industries use them. In fact, the only food producers that are known for consistently using preliminary presumptives are mainly Alfalfa Sprout growers. With a shelf life of 8-10 hours, some Alfalfa growers saw the need to have a “quick check” method to ensure their product is safe from harmful levels of bacteria that causes food borne illnesses.

These products are applicable to not only raw food but prepared food such as restaurant and frozen food items.

What is important is that preliminary presumptives empower front line workers to stop a problem before it start.

For the industry to regain food integrity, adding a “quick check” system and empowering their workers to go with their “gut feeling” and spot check food will save lives.

Robert Greene is General Manager for Magna Medical Products and Services, (http://www.magnamedicalservices.com) a food and drug screening company with offices in Las Vegas, NV and Orlando, FL.

Robert Greene, General Manager
Magna Medical Products and Services, Inc.
254 S. Ronald Reagan Blvd. Ste 136
Longwood, FL 32750

407 260 9094
407 260 9951 FAX

http://www.Magnamedicalservices.com