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Food Safety This Holiday Season – The White House Blog
Posted by Kathleen Sebelius and Tom Vilsack on December 21, 2011 at 01:00 PM EST
With the holiday season in full swing, many of us are thinking about the meals we’ll soon be sharing with family and friends. Whether it’s turkey and egg nog, or latkes, or a New Year’s buffet, food is always a central and cherished part of the festivities. Of course, we all know that a necessary ingredient for any meal is food safety.
When the President came into office, he said that “protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has.” He pledged to strengthen our food safety laws and to enhance the government’s food safety performance.
To help accomplish that goal, the Administration worked with Congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle, and a broad coalition of industry and consumer groups, to enact the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA. FSMA is the most sweeping reform of our food laws in more than 70 years. It will apply modern scientific methods to target and prevent the most significant hazards and hold importers accountable for the safety of the food they bring into this country. FDA is working towards a release of proposed rules to implement FSMA and to build a modern new system of food safety oversight that harnesses the best available practices.
To oversee all of the Administration’s food safety efforts, the President created the Federal Food Safety Working Group, led by our two departments. Partner agencies include the FDA and CDC.
We’re pleased to say that the Working Group’s just released report shows that this Administration has delivered substantial results in the area of food safety. These include stricter standards to prevent contamination of food with dangerous bacteria, stronger surveillance to detect contamination problems earlier, and more rapid response to illness outbreaks.
FSIS announced tougher and new standards to prevent as many as 25,000 illnesses annually from Salmonellaand Campylobacter. FSIS will soonprohibit any raw ground beef found to contain six additional types of E. colibacteria from being sold to consumers, preventing additional illnesses and deaths.
FDA established an egg safety rule that is expected to help prevent 79,000 illnesses and save one billion dollars each year. And its new “Reportable Food Registry” requires the food industry to file electronic reports about food safety problems. The Registry already led to the recall of products that presented a risk of Salmonella.
CDC, along with frontline state and local disease detectives coordinated the response to over 20 outbreaks across states and tracked more than 200 clusters of suspected foodborne illness. Many illnesses were prevented and lives saved by prompt action taken by Colorado and other states during the recent Listeria outbreak.
These are significant accomplishments, but our joint New Year’s resolution is that you’ll see many more great things in 2012. Among these next steps, the FDA intends to further strengthen food safety prevention efforts. We will take even greater strides on this front when the FDA issues proposed rules under the Food Safety Modernization Act.
And we all need to do our part to keep food safe. Keep hands and work surfaces clean. Separate raw meats, eggs and seafood from other foods. Refrigerate any food that should be refrigerated, including pie, within two hours. Don’t use unpasteurized eggs or egg products for any recipe calling for raw eggs, and cook foods to a safe internal temperature. Use a food thermometer to ensure that meat, poultry, and fish achieve a safe internal temperature; turkey and stuffing should both be 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Make sure food safety is at the top of your holiday list – it’s the best gift you can give those who will gather around your table for the holidays.
Kathleen Sebelius is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Tom Vilsack is the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Strengthening Food Safety in Canada
Press Release: Government of Canada – Mon, Dec 19, 2011 4:20 PM EST
OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire -12/19/11)- Today, the Government of Canada released its final report to Canadians on the action it has taken to respond to all recommendations by Ms. Sheila Weatherill outlined in the Report of the Independent Investigator into the 2008 Listeriosis Outbreak.
“Food safety is a priority for this Government,” said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz. “We continue to work with consumers, producers, industry and our provincial and territorial partners to ensure that our food safety system remains one of the best in the world.”
Action on Weatherill Report Recommendations to Strengthen the Food Safety System: Final Report to Canadians outlines the Government’s continuous work to reduce food safety risks, enhance surveillance and early detection of foodborne pathogens and illnesses, and improve emergency response.
“We have taken concrete action to improve how we detect and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks,” said Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq. “From stronger response plans with our food safety partners to using innovative technologies in our labs, we are better prepared to protect the health of Canadians.”
The Government of Canada has made significant investments to improve the food safety system. In 2009, a $75 million investment was provided to further improve Canada’s ability to prevent, detect and respond to future foodborne illness outbreaks. Budget 2010 allotted an additional $13 million annually for two years to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to fund increased inspection capacity for meat and poultry processing facilities. Budget 2011 provided a further $100 million over five years to invest in inspector training, tools and technology, and science capacity. All of these investments build on the Government’s 2008 commitment to invest $489.5 million over five years in the Food and Consumer Safety Action Plan.
In 2009, the Government of Canada committed to act on all of Ms. Weatherill’s recommendations. The final report highlights the actions taken to strengthen the food safety system, including:
– Identifying and fast-tracking the approval of food safety interventions
such as food additives that reduce the growth of Listeria monocytogenes
and other pathogens.
– Hiring 170 additional full-time inspectors to increase CFIA’s presence
in federally registered meat processing plants.
– Developing new detection methods for Listeria and other hazards in food
that reduce testing time and enable more rapid response during food
safety investigations.
– Using innovative laboratory technologies in outbreak investigations and
expanding the outbreak detection lab network to include public health
and food safety partners across Canada.
– Supporting national public health surveillance to improve collection,
reporting and analysis of a wide range of health information.
– Providing Canadians, including those most vulnerable, with the
information they need to reduce the risk of a foodborne illness through
a new online food safety portal and national public information
campaigns.
– Updating the Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol, which guides
how all levels of government work together to respond to a national or
international outbreak.
– Ensuring that health risk assessment teams are available 24/7 to support
food safety investigations.
– Building surge capacity in order to respond more quickly and effectively
to potential future foodborne illness outbreaks.
Everyone has a role to play in keeping our food safe, including producers, industry, government and consumers. The Government of Canada will continue to work with all players to keep food as safe as possible for all Canadians.
The final report can be found on the Government of Canada’s food safety portal at www.foodsafety.gc.ca.
Bill & Sheila’s Food Safety – Bacterial Infections
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