On December 21, 2011, a report was released on the President Barack Obama’s Food Safety Working Group (FSWG), appointed in March 2009. which reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to provide food safety to Americans. The working group has been facing challenges in implementation of the law but seems buoyed by the legislation passed earlier this year.

The report was released by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack, who also issued a statement, which said, “The holidays are a good time to reiterate the government's commitment to protecting the nation's food supply.”

1) FSWG

The FSWG was established more than two and a half years ago after the country was facing a number of high-profile foodborne illness outbreaks, which involved food items like ground beef, hot peppers, and peanuts. After its establishment, the group laid down for itself certain key steps, which included:-

• Including a new egg safety rule to prevent Salmonella infections;
• Measures to reduce pathogenic Escherichia coli contamination in ground beef; and
• Plans to improve trace-back investigations and coordination among federal agencies involved in food safety.

2) The Report

The report released in December, said, “The FSWG's 2-year mark is a good time to assess its efforts and set an agenda for the next 2 years and beyond, including activities needed to implement the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law on January 4.”

For instance, the group wrote that the FDA will have inspected 600 of the largest egg producers in the country by the end of 2011. This would be instrumental in reducing the number of shell egg-related illnesses by about 60%.

Similarly, a new verification testing program for key ground beef components was underway to control E coli contamination.

3) Food Safety Surveillance

The Federal Government is also serious about strengthening food safety surveillance, as is evident from “the expansion of PulseNet, a national molecular subtyping network for identifying foodborne bacteria, to 50 states and 82 countries, with a similar system for detecting noroviruses now operating in 25 states.”

The report also states that “FoodCORE, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program to support outbreak investigations, has played roles in helping to quickly contain single- and multi-state outbreaks.”

4) FSMA

It is expected that the continued implementation of the FSMA will determine the success or failure of the FSWG but the Government has identified the key areas, which would be “pre-harvest food safety, preventive control standards, retail food safety, modernized food safety inspections, and import safety.”

Since the country has been facing outbreak after outbreak in the recent times, the FSWG report comes as a breather, both for the Government as well as the general public. It is up to the Obama Government now to ensure that the legislation is implemented properly and no body is left to suffer.

Image Courtesy: blackwaterdog.wordpress.com