|
Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> November
> November 6, 1998:
Hour One: Food Safety
| Last week, several food safety problems popped up around the country. Hormel recalled packages of frozen prepared hamburgers nationwide, and Dixie Packers recalled hundreds of thousands of pounds of hot dogs. Both feared contamination with the microorganism Listeria monocytogenes. Another company warned parents of possible peanut contamination in its candy - a problem for people with peanut allergies. An agricultural journal found that meats in restaurants contained higher levels of carcinogens than meats in homes. And a report in JAMA traced an outbreak of salmonella-related illness to people drinking unpasteurized orange juice. Five food-safety related stories in one week ... just how safe is our nation's food supply? |  | Federal control of food safety is split among 12 agencies. Meat, poultry, and egg products are under the control of the USDA, while the Food and Drug Administration oversees the safety of fruits and vegetables, seafood, and eggs in shells. The EPA regulates pesticide controls. Disease outbreaks are investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In August of this year, President Clinton created the President's Council on Food Safety to attempt to coordinate efforts between different agencies. New regulations, known as HACCP (for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) delegated responsibility for some food-saftey concerns to the manufacturers themselves, with oversight by outside inspectors.
Food production is becoming more and more high-tech. Researchers have developed sprays to prevent salmonella contamination in chickens, and have discovered that changing the proportion of hay to grain in cattle feed can cut down on E. coli contamination. Irradiation and zapping food with electic currents have also been suggested as means to prevent outbreaks of illness. But in the long run, will technological advances help, or will they cause more problems?
What procedures are in place to safeguard the nation's food supply? And what common-sense tips can ordinary people use to protect themselves, other than staying away from raw hamburger and not eating the picnic potato salad after it's been out of the cooler for a few hours? Find out on this hour of Science Friday.
Guests:
Catherine Woteki
Undersecretary for Food Safety
US Department of Agriculture
Washington, DC
David Acheson
Author, "Safe Eating" (Dell)
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Tufts University School of Medicine
Boston, MA
Books/Articles Discussed:
"Safe Eating" by David W. K. Acheson and Robin K. Levinson. Dell Books, 1998.
Related Links:
USDA food safety
FDA food safety
CDC - foodborne illnesses
Food Safety Database
The Inspector.com (for food inspectors)
Previous Science Friday Show About Food Safety
August 29, 1997
This segment produced by:
Annette Heist
Web producer/Writer:
Charles Bergquist
|
