식품안전 위생 교육센터 Newsletter #4
7/09/2009

김밥에 대장균 득실…어린이 식품 위생도 엉망
sourece : http://news.mk.co.kr
작성자 : 정규해 기자
작성일 : 2009.07.07 16:26:01

정부와 국회가 식생활 안전관리 특별법까지 만들며 식품 안전 관리에 주력하고 있지만, 영세업체들의 인식을 바꾸기엔 역부족인가 봅니다.
일부 음식점에서 식중독균과 대장균이 여전하고 어린이 식품 제조 업체들의 위생상태도 불결했습니다.
정규해 기자가 보도합니다.
기자 】 국회의원들과 식품의약품안전청 직원들이 함께 음식점에 들러 위생 점검을 해봤습니
다. 단속 반원이 세균을 측정한 결과 다행히 기준치 이하의 세균이 검출됩니다.
하지만, 지난 석 달 동안 점검 결과를 보면 실상은 크게 다릅니다.
먼저 김밥천국 등 일부 음식점에선 설사 등을 유발하는 대장균이 학생들이 즐겨 먹는 김밥과 쫄면 등에서 검출됐습니다.
또 한성식품이 판매하는 조미오징어다리 등에선 기준치를 초과하는 식중독균이 나왔고, 일부 어린이용 식품에선 허용 외 색소를 쓰거나 기준치를 초과하는 인공감미료를 넣은 것으로 드러났습니다.

특히 일부 어린이 기호식품 생산 업체의 경우엔 유통기한이 지난 원료를 사용하거나 제조 공장의
위생상태가 엉망인 것으로 나타났습니다.이에 따라 당정은 식품 위해사범에 대한 처벌 기준을 높이고, 식중독 예방을 위한 사전 점검을 강화하기로 했습니다.

▶ 인터뷰 : 안홍준 / 한나라당 식품안전특별위원장 - "식품 안전 기준이 없는 것은 당분간 세계
최고 기준으로 하자 이렇게 준비를 하고 있습니다.

식약청을 우선으로 배려할 수 있도록 관계부처회의 때도 역할을 하겠습니다.

▶ 인터뷰 : 윤여표 / 식품의약품안전청장 - "건강에 좋지 않은 여러 물질, 첨가물들을 될 수 있
으면 사용하지 않은 그런 제품들을 만들도록 해서 국민이 건강을 유지할 수 있도록 하겠습니다.
" 또 안전성이 검증되지 않은 타르계 색소에 대해선 기준을 강화하거나 아예 사용하지 못하게 할
방침입니다.

양계장서 오염 달걀 4개만 발견돼도 실격
source : http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr
작성자 : 박상현 특파원
작성일 : 2009/07/08 05:40
버락 오바마 미국 행정부는 7일 계란과 가금류, 쇠고기, 과일, 채소 등 먹을거리에 대한 위생기준
을 대폭 강화하는 조치를 발표했다.
올해초 살모넬라균에 오염된 땅콩버터 파문으로 홍역을 치렀던 미국에서 비위생적인 식품으로
인한 식중독 사고로 매년 5천명 가량이 목숨을 잃고 있으며, 이에 따라 오바마 행정부는 먹을거리
들이 농장에서부터 식탁에 오를 때까지 모든 유통과정에서 정부 당국이 철저한 위생감시 체계를 구축해 사회적 비용을 줄여나간다는 방침이다.

이날 조 바이든 부통령과 톰 빌색 농무장관, 캐슬린 시벨리어스 보건장관 등이 함께 발표한 새
로운 식품안전 규정은 모든 계란의 냉장 유통을 의무화하고 살모넬라균의 확산을 막기 위해 가금
류 농장에 대한 위생검역을 한층 강화하는 내용을 포함하고 있다.
또 쇠고기의 대장균 오염을 막고 과일과 잎채소류에 박테리아 오염을 예방할 수 있도록 위생관
리를 철저히하는 내용을 담고 있다.
새로운 규정에 따르면 3천마리 이상의 닭을 사육하는 양계업자는 식품의약국(FDA)에 등록, 대
폭 강화된 청결 기준을 준수해야 하며 농장내 각종 장비와 인력에 의해 박테리아가 옮겨지는 것을 막기 위해 철저한 위생검역을 실시해야 한다.

만일 검역관이 박테리아에 오염된 계란을 4개 이상을 발견하면 해당 양계장은 엄격한 절차에 따
라 모든 계란을 폐기처분해야 하며 폐기하지 않은 계란도 식용으로 이용할 수 없도록 했다.
생산된 지 36시간이 지난 계란은 저온살균 처리 여부와 상관없이 소비자가 구매할 때까지는 7℃
에서 냉장 유통.보관돼야 한다.
트럭운전사와 하역담당자 등도 계란의 모든 운송단계에서 냉장 여부를 확인하고 이를 문서화해
야 한다.
이와 함께 농무부는 각 주정부와 지역의 위생당국에 대해 식품 관련 질병의 발생에 신속히 대응
할 수 있도록 응급대처 가이드라인을 새롭게 정비하도록 요청하고 주 보건당국과의 연락을 담당할 직원들을 확충키로 했다.
오염된 식품류의 리콜 조치가 내려질 경우 판매업자들에게까지 정보가 신속히 전달될 수 있도
록 정보공유 체계도 강화키로 했다.
미국에서는 박테리아에 오염된 계란으로 인해 연간 7만9천명의 환자가 발생하고 30명이 목숨을
잃고 있으며, 전체 비위생 식품류에 의한 질환은 연간 7천600만건에 사망자가 5천명에 이른다.

서울 중·고등학교 식중독 ‘적신호’
source : http://www.womennews.co.kr
작성자 : 김세형 기자
작성일 : 2009.07.07 (화) 오전 5:35
직영급식 비율 20% 못 미쳐…초·중·고 전체 직영화 비율은 90%
일선 학교장들 직영 전환 꺼려…서울시교육청의 소극적 태도 한몫
지난 2003년과 2006년, 일선 학교에서 집단 식중독 사고가 발생했다. 2003년엔 서울시 13개교에서 집단 식중독이 발생했고, 2006년에는 수도권 지역 46개교에서 4000명이 훌쩍 넘는 학생이 식중독에 걸렸다.
문제는 위탁급식이었다. 교과부의 급식 형태별 위생, 안정등급 비교 자료에 따르면 위생 상태가 미흡한 D등급 이하인 학교는 조사 대상 학교(8296곳) 가운데 직영 급식을 하는 경우가 2.1%, 위탁급식을 하는 학교는 6.1%로 드러났다.
주목해야 할 점은 식중독 문제가 끊임없이 발생하고 있음에도 위탁이냐 직영이냐를 두고 아직까지도 반복적인 논쟁이 벌어진다는 것이다.
식중독 사태 후 민주노동당 최순영 의원은 직영 급식을 골자로 하는 급식법 개정안을 발의했지만
무려 2년 동안 논의조차 되지 않았다. 급식법 개정안을 다뤄야 할 교육위원회는 ‘사학법 파동’
에 휘말린 채 공전에 공전을 거듭했다.
그러다 국회는 2006년 집단 식중독 파문을 계기로 부랴부랴 급식법 개정안을 통과시켰다. 식중독
사태는 CJ푸드시스템에서 시작, 동원캐터링, SF캐터링, 개원급식 등 여러 급식 위탁 업체들이 집
단 식중독 사고에 줄줄이 휘말렸다.
전국적으로 집단 식중독 사고가 난 학교는 무려 40여 곳. 피해 학생은 4000명을 넘었다. 이를 계기로 “위탁 급식을 골자로 한 현행 급식법에 손을 대야 한다”는 목소리에도 힘이 실리자 국회는
등 떠밀리 듯 급식법 개정안을 통과시킨 것이다.

무려 2년간 계류 중이던 급식법 개정안은 CJ푸드시스템의 집단 식중독 사고가 터진 지 얼마 지나
지 않아 처리되는 기염을 토했다. 예컨대 ‘소’ 잃고 ‘외양간’을 고친 것이다.
그로부터 3년이 지난 지금, 학생들은 식중독 위험에서 벗어나 있을까. 2006년 통과된 급식법 개정
안에 따르면 2010년 1월까지 직영 급식을 완료해야 한다.
이에 따라 전국 초·중·고의 전체 직영화 비율은 90%를 넘는다. 초등학교 직영 비율은 99.9%, 특
수학교는 99.3%에 이른다. 그러나 서울 소재 중·고등학교의 직영 비율은 20%에도 미치지 못한다

중학교, 고등학교의 직영 비율은 각각 18.4%, 11.9%에 불과하다. 숫자로 표현하면 365개 중학교 가운데 직영화되지 않은 학교는 298개, 고등학교는 294학교 중 262학교다.
유독 서울 소재 중·고등학교가 직영 전환에 소극적인 움직임을 보이고 있는 것이다.
왜일까. 이유는 간단하다. 일선 학교장들이 직영 전환을 꺼리고 있기 때문이다.
직영화 예산이 제대로 집행되지 않는 점도 한몫 거든다. 서울시교육청의 경우 직영화 지원자금을
준다. 학교당 1억원이다. 하지만 정작 예산을 가져가는 학교는 적다.
예산도 깎였다. 서울시교육청의 급식 직영 전환 보조예산을 보자. 2007년 42억6000만원이 편성됐으나 21억7000만원만 집행됐다. 2008년 78억원의 편성예산 중 집행금액은 36억원에 그친다. 2009년 57억원의 예산이 편성됐으나 현재까지 집행은 절반밖에 되지 않는다.
서울시교육청이 급식 직영화 지원에 소극적으로 움직이고 있는 것이다. 그러는 사이 한나라당 조정혁 의원은 직영 급식 개정안을 반대하는 법안까지 제출했다. 이것 때문에 서울시 학교장들은 일선 교직원의 업무가 가중되는 점을 명분으로 내세우며 직영 전환에 더욱 소극적으로 움직이고 있다. 어떻게 되는지 지켜본 후 결정할 요량에서다.
배병옥 학교급식네트워크 서울운동본부 상임대표는 “학교급식 개정안에 따라 직영 전환을 해야 함에도 불구하고 서울시 교육감과 서울시 중등교장회가 법 이행을 외면하고 거부하고 있다”며 “국민감사청구운동을 벌여 9월 감사원에 감사청구를 할 계획”이라고 덧붙였다.
그는 또 “학생들의 건강한 급식을 위해 현행법 준수에 앞장서야 할 교육청과 학교장들이 말도 안
되는 상황을 연출하고 있다”며 “공교육의 일환인 학교급식을 부담스러워서 못한다는 것은 교육
을 못하겠다는 것과 같다”고 질타했다.

해외 식품안전 위생 정보

Video: Vice President Biden: Food Safety Working Group Key Findings


Administration Urged to Boost Food Safety Efforts
Source of Article: http://voices.washingtonpost.com
By Jane Black and Ed O'Keefe Updated 4:11 p.m. ET
The Obama Administration today took a first step towards overhauling food safety regulations that have been blamed for a steady stream of food safety outbreaks and product recalls.
The new proposals, recommended by a working group President Obama created in March, emphasize prevention, enforcement and improving the government's response time to food safety outbreaks.
"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important for the government than making sure the food our families eat is safe, Vice President Joseph Biden said at a White House news conference where he was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "American families have enough to worry about today. They should not have [food safety] as a concern."
Fears about food safety has been spurred by a series of national outbreaks of salmonella and E.coli in products as varied as peanuts, pistachios, spinach, tomatoes, peppers and, most recently, cookie dough. The complex and sometimes bizarre division of labor among the 15 federal agencies that oversee inspections is also a concern: The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for fresh eggs while the Department of Agriculture is responsible for egg products. Cheese pizzas are inspected by the FDA while meat-laden pepperoni pies go to the USDA.

The administration outlined a variety of measures to prevent the spread of salmonella, a bacteria that causes more than 1 million illnesses each year in the United States. The FDA issued a final rule to reduce the contamination in eggs, which the agency estimates will help reduce the number of foodborne illnesses associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked contaminated eggs by 79,000 or about 60 percent. It also will save more than $1 billion annually, Sebelius said.
The regulation has been a long time coming. President Bill Clinton first proposed similar regulations in 1999.
The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also committed to develop new standards to reduce the prevalence of salmonella in turkeys and poultry by the end of the year. It will also establish a salmonella verification program with the hopes that 90 percent of poultry establishments will meet the new standards by the end of 2010.
Both agencies also announced plans to tackle E.coli. FSIS will step up enforcement at meat processing plants and increase sampling that tests for the pathogen especially for ground beef. The FDA, which is responsible for fresh produce, will by the end of the month issue guidance on ways to reduce contamination in the production and distribution of tomatoes, melons and leafy greens.
The proposals also included new staff positions that will help agencies coordinate with one another. The FDA will hire a deputy commissioner for foods to oversee and coordinate its efforts on food, including food safety. FSIS will hire a new chief medical officer position to report to USDA's undersecretary for food safety.
On the whole, food safety advocates were pleased with the new initiatives. "We are coming out of a phase, just like in the financial sector, where the government was loathe to regulate," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Tougher controls earlier in the food chain will result in fewer recalls and fewer outbreaks."
"Part of the problem with how we currently deal with foodborne illness cases is we wait until people get sick and die and then we announce an outbreak," said Bill Marler, a veteran food safety litigator who writes an active blog about the issue. "It seems that the focus here is a bit on preventing it before we have sick and dead people as opposed to counting the bodies after salmonella or E. Coli is out of the barn."

Such changes are long overdue, advocates agree. Many key food safety regulations were inspired by the publication of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" in 1906. "While the law hasn't changed dramatically since then, our world has changed dramatically since then," Biden said. "It's not unusual for us to snack on vegetables from South America and pick up some fruit from the South Pacific and then go have dinner with beef from Brazil."
“Today’s announcement signals an important break from our past policy of making piecemeal changes to outdated laws," said Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) "These changes are a fundamental step towards comprehensive food safety reform.”
Still, many key changes will be left to Congress, including the controversial issue of giving federal agencies the authority to recall tainted products if a manufacturer refuses. This would also make it easier for consumers to find out where recalled food was sold.
Several bills have been introduced to tackle this and other issues not included in the working group's recommendations. Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) want to give FDA the authority to recall tainted food, to "quarantine" suspect food, and to have the ability to impose civil penalties and increased criminal sanctions on safety violators. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) has proposed separating the agency's food safety responsibilities by establishing a new Food Safety Administration. In the Senate, Durbin hopes to give the agency a larger budget with more inspectors and stronger regulatory tools.

More E. coli sampling, salmonella program among Obama panel recommendations
Source of Article: www.meatingplace.com
by Ann Bagel Storck on 7/7/2009

A Food Safety Working Group created by President Obama in March on Tuesday announced recommendations that include new standards to reduce salmonella in poultry and increased E. coli sampling in beef products, among other actions.
The recommendations are centered around three core food safety principles, the group said:
Preventing harm to consumers is our first priority.
Effective food safety inspections and enforcement depend upon good data and analysis.
Outbreaks of foodborne illness should be identified quickly and stopped.
E. coli and salmonella prevention
By the end of July, the group stated in a report, USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service will issue improved instructions to its workforce on how to verify that establishments that handle beef are acting to reduce the presence of E. coli. Also by the end of July, FSIS will increase its sampling to find this pathogen, focusing largely on the components that go into making ground beef, the group said.
By the end of the year, FSIS will develop new standards to reduce the prevalence of salmonella in poultry. The agency will also establish a salmonella verification program with the goal of having 90 percent of poultry establishments meeting the new standards by the end of 2010.

Illness traceback and response
The Food Safety Working Group also announced several actions aimed at managing foodborne illness outbreaks more effectively and sharing information in an emergency. These actions include:
Within three months, FDA will issue draft guidance on steps the food industry can take to establish product tracing systems to improve national capacity for detecting the origins of foodborne illness.
Within three months, federal agencies will implement a new incident command system to address outbreaks of foodborne illness.
Within six to 12 months, FSIS will improve collaboration with states by increasing the capacity of its public health epidemiology liaison program to state public health departments through additional hires and expanded outreach.
CDC will work with states to evaluate and optimize best practices for aggressive and rapid outbreak investigation, and will launch a new system to facilitate information-sharing and adoption of best practices within 12 months.
The federal government will enhance foodsafety.gov to better communicate information to the public and include an improved individual alert system allowing consumers to receive food safety information, such as notification of recalls. Agencies will also use social media to expand public communications. The first stage of this process will be completed in 90 days.
New positions at FSIS and FDA
The group also announced that within the next three months, USDA will create a new position, chief medical officer, at FSIS. This position, which will report to the under secretary for food safety, is designed to enhance USDA's commitment to preventing foodborne illness.
This month FDA will create a new position, deputy commissioner for foods, to oversee and coordinate its efforts on food, including food safety. This position will be empowered to restructure and revitalize FDA's activities and work with FSIS and other agencies in developing a new food safety system.

Food Safety Video
Basic Food Safety - Part 2: Holding Time and Temperatures

FSIS, JBS Swift ? “Where is the Beef?” Would you Mind Telling the Public Where the E. coli Beef is BEFORE the 4th of July?

Source of Article: http://www.marlerblog.com/
The good/bad thing about hitting 50ish, and litigating food poisoning cases for 16 years, is the institutional memory that I have developed regarding bad food and bad commercials.
Coming days before the 4th of July barbeque's, JBS Swift Beef Company expanded the approximately 40,000 pounds of “assorted beef primals” recalled on June 24 to include another approximately 380,000 pounds of “assorted beef primals" due to E. coli O157:H7 contamination. Somewhere between 18 and 24 Illnesses have been reported in what is believed to be Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin? As reported by the Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS):
The beef products were produced on April 21, 2009 and were distributed both nationally and internationally. Each box bears the establishment number "EST. 969" inside the USDA mark of inspection as well as the identifying package date of "042109" and a time stamp ranging from "0618" to "1130." However, these products were sent to establishments and retail stores nationwide for further processing and will likely not bear the establishment number "EST. 969" on products available for direct consumer purchase. Customers with concerns should contact their point of purchase.
The recalled products include intact cuts of beef, such as primals, sub-primals, or boxed beef typically used for steaks and roasts rather than ground beef. FSIS is aware that some of these products may have been further processed into ground products by other companies. The highest risk products for consumers are raw ground product, trim or other non-intact product made from the products subject to the recall.

So, where is the recalled beef?
On August 18, 2008 after years of hand wringing, the FSIS finally put public health before “proprietary” business interests when it made the following rule:
9 C.F.R. § 390.10 Availability of Lists of Retail Consignees during Meat or Poultry Product Recalls
The Administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service will make publicly available the names and locations of retail consignees of recalled meat or poultry products that the Agency compiles in connection with a recall where there is a reasonable probability that the use of the product could cause serious adverse health consequences or death.

The full rule can be reviewed at: http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OPPDE/rdad/FRPubs/2005-0028F.pdf

The Bottom Line:
The FSIS is now supposed to make available to the public names and locations of retail consignees (grocery stores, etc.) of meat and poultry products recalled by a federally-inspected meat or poultry establishment if the recalled product has been distributed to the retail level. The rule will only apply to Class I recalls (like the JBS Swift ones). The information is supposed to be posted on the FSIS website, generally within three (3) to ten (10) working days, following the announcement of the recall.
So, where is the recalled beef?

FSIS and JBS Swift reveal partial distribution of E. coli Tainted Meat
Source of Article: http://www.foodpoisonjournal.com/
Posted on July 2, 2009 by Suzanne Schreck
More than a week after JBS Swift initiated a nationwide recall of E. coli-tainted meat, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and JBS Swift have taken the necessary steps of alerting consumers as to which retail outlets received the beef. After an initial recall of 41,280 pounds on June 24, JBS Swift expanded the recall to include an additional 380,000 pounds on June 28. Now the entire April 21 production run of beef primal from the JBS Swift Greeley, Colorado plant is being recalled. The retail outlets listed by FSIS and JBS Swift are:

Price Chopper stores
Hannaford stores in ME, NH, VT, MA, and NY
Stop & Shop stores in ME, MA, RI, CT, NH, northern KY, Southeastern IN, western TN, and AR
Kroger stores in MS and IL
Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago area
Fry’s stores in AZ
Smith’s stores in AZ, UT, and other Western states
Costco
The CDC announced on July 1 that 23 people in 9 states had been infected with the genetic fingerprint of E. coli O157:H7 associated with the outbreak. Twelve people were hospitalized and two suffered hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a complication of E. coli O157:H7 infection that can lead to kidney failure. Illnesses have been reported in the following states: California (4), Maine (1), Michigan (6), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (2), New Mexico (1), New York (1) and Wisconsin (6).

Consumers need to know that the meat they have in their homes may be contaminated with a deadly pathogen. Following is a list to date of individual store recalls that came out before the FSIS/JBS Swift release. Our hope is that you will help us spread the word.

BJ's Wholesale Clubs in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island ? beef cuts and vacuum-packed primal cuts
Bloom and Food Lion Stores in Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia ? beef cuts and ground beef
Costco ? steaks, ribs, ground beef (PDF)
Food 4 Less ? ground beef, 15% (PDF)
Fry's Food and Drug Stores ? ground beef (PDF)
Hannaford Bros. Co. ? beef cuts and ground beef (PDF)
Kroger ? ground beef (PDF)
Price Chopper ? ground beef and beef loin bottom sirloin steaks
Roundy's Supermarkets, Inc., including Pick 'n Save, Copps and Rainbow stores ? beef cuts and fresh ground beef
Smith's Food and Drug Stores ? ground beef (PDF)
Smith's Food and Drug Stores in Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming ? beef cuts and ground beef (PDF)
Stop & Shop Supermarket Company ? ground beef
WinCo Foods, LLC Stores in Idaho and Oregon ? boneless bottom round roast, steak, carne asada, ground beef

CDC acts to expedite foodborne data sharing
Source of Article: http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/
Maryn McKenna Contributing Writer
Jul 7, 2009 (CIDRAP News) ? At the same time that the Obama Administration inaugurates new safety and enforcement standards for the agencies overseeing food production in the United States, one of those agencies?the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?is taking steps to improve the flow of data revealing food-safety problems.
Last month, the CDC released one of its periodic reports disclosing statistics on foodborne disease outbreaks in the United States. But in a break from agency tradition, the report did not summarize and compare 2 or more years' worth of numbers.
Instead, it presented just 1 year's worth, for 2006, in an unusually granular breakdown of outbreaks by disease-causing organism?the first step in a program to push outbreak analysis out more quickly, said CDC scientist Ian Williams, PhD.
"Our hope is to get data out there for people to actually use it," said Williams, chief of the OutbreakNet team in the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases. "In reporting systems, there is always a lag time because data has to be aggregated, cleaned, and verified?but for any year we hope to have something out by the following fall."

Data for 2007 and then 2008 will be published soon, Williams said.
The report, titled "Surveillance for Foodborne Disease Outbreaks?United States, 2006," and published in the CDC's bulletin Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), points up vulnerabilities in the food-safety system that may be more visible because they are not contrasted with other years' data. Among them: by etiology, a high percentage of outbreaks caused by norovirus (54%) followed by Salmonella (18%); and by food, a high percentage traced to leafy vegetables and fruits and nuts (17% for leafy vegetables and 16% for fruits and nuts, or 33% all told).
Such single-point reporting may be a weakness of the new system, because it cannot establish trends in the way that multi-year analyses do, said prominent food-safety attorney Bill Marler of Seattle. "It you looked just at 2006, you would think that produce is a terrible risk, but in 2007 and 2008 there were fewer outbreaks in produce and many more in meat," he said.

Marler and other food-safety advocates, though, applauded the move to get data out to the field more quickly.
"We have been asking for years to get this kind of data out more succinctly and earlier," said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of the nonprofit organization Safe Tables Our Priority (STOP). "To put out a single-year data set is a move in the right direction."
The greatest hole in the safety net exposed by the report, though, is the large number of outbreaks for which there are no data. In 2006, 48 states reported 1,270 outbreaks (defined as two or more cases of similar illnesses linked to a common food).
But among those 1,270 outbreaks, officials could confirm a causative agent for only 621 (49%), and a causative food in only 528 (42%). In an additional 263 outbreaks (21%), an organism or chemical was suspected, but not confirmed. The new analysis confirming those percentages "will help us get a sense of where there are holes in the system and where we need to put more effort," Williams said.
In addition to two states that reported no foodborne outbreaks at all, 12 reported none due to viral illnesses, despite the sharp rise in norovirus cases in other areas?findings that the CDC acknowledged are due to the differences in funding, lab resources, and other public-health infrastructure from state to state. (In 2006, for instance, a number of state laboratories began receiving materials that allowed them to perform diagnostic tests for the presence of norovirus.)

The data show other holes as well: chief among them, the vast number of foodborne illnesses that are presumed to happen in the United States each year but are never reported in a manner that allows them to be analyzed. Up to 76 million Americans are believed to suffer foodborne illness each year, according to previous CDC estimates; the 2006 data, though, cover only 27,634 cases among the 1,270 outbreaks that year.

"It is very concerning to us how few cases are identified and analyzed," Rosenbaum said. "Some people do suffer transient illness and get well quickly, but others suffer long-term consequences and tremendous economic loss, and have no one to hold accountable.

"Even when people do seek care and attempt to get a (lab) culture confirmation for their illness, unless there is a second, third or fourth case in the community, it is very unlikely there is going to be an investigation."

Slow progress in reducing foodborne illness was a theme in the administration announcements Tuesday, covering sweeping changes to egg safety rules. And it has been touched on in earlier CDC reports, such as an April 10 MMWR disclosing that "fundamental problems with bacterial and parasitic contamination are not being resolved."

That paper, from a sister CDC project to OutbreakNet known as FoodNet, found that for certain disease organisms, improvements in foodborne illness plateaued in 2004, and predicted that the United States would not hit 2010 goals for reducing those illnesses.

Some smaller outbreaks are never analyzed by public health, and some illnesses that look like individual cases may be part of larger or multi-state outbreaks that are not recognized, the CDC's June report said.

Overhaul of Food Safety Rules in the Works
(Washington Post, DC)
By Jane Black and Ed O'Keefe
The Obama administration took its first step yesterday toward overhauling food safety regulations that have been blamed for a steady stream of food recalls and related illnesses.
The new proposals, recommended by a working group that President Obama created in March, emphasize prevention, enforcement and improving the government's response time to such incidents.
"There are few responsibilities more basic or more important for the government than making sure the food our families eat is safe," Vice President Biden said at a White House news conference, where he was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "American families have enough to worry about today. They should not have [food safety] as a concern."
Fears about food safety have been spurred by outbreaks of salmonella and E. coli illness from products as varied as peanuts, spinach, tomatoes, pistachios, peppers and, most recently, cookie dough.
Fifteen federal agencies oversee food inspections in a complex and sometimes bizarre division of labor: The Food and Drug Administration is responsible for produce, while the Agriculture Department is responsible for meat. Cheese pizzas are inspected by the FDA, while pepperoni pies go to the USDA.

The administration outlined a variety of measures yesterday to prevent the spread of salmonella, a bacterium that causes more than 1 million illnesses each year in the United States.
Among them is a final rule, issued by the FDA, to reduce the contamination in eggs. About 142,000 Americans are infected each year with Salmonella enteritidis from eggs, the result of an infected hen passing along the bacterium. About 30 die.
The FDA will now require that egg producers test regularly for salmonella and buy chicks from suppliers who do the same. Eggs, which must be refrigerated by wholesalers and retail stores, will have to be refrigerated on the farm and during shipment, as well. About half the egg industry is following similar guidelines voluntarily.

The agency said that will help reduce the number of related food-borne illnesses by an estimated 79,000 a year, or about 60 percent. The new requirements will cost producers about $81 million a year, and add about 1 cent to the cost of a dozen eggs, FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. Sebelius said it will save the nation about $1.4 billion a year in medical expenses.

Such a regulatory change has been a long time coming. President Bill Clinton proposed similar action in 1999, but it was never implemented.

The USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) also committed to developing new standards by the end of the year to reduce salmonella in poultry. The office will also establish a salmonella verification program, with the hopes that 90 percent of poultry establishments will meet the new standards by the end of 2010.

Both agencies also announced plans to tackle E. coli. FSIS will step up enforcement at meat processing plants and increase sampling that tests for the pathogen, especially in ground beef. By the end of the month, the FDA, which is responsible for fresh produce, will issue guidance on ways to reduce contamination in the production and distribution of tomatoes, melons and leafy greens.

The proposals also included adding staff positions to help agencies coordinate with one another. The FDA will hire a deputy commissioner for foods, and FSIS will hire a new chief medical officer, who will report to USDA's undersecretary for food safety.

On the whole, food safety advocates were pleased with the new initiatives. "We are coming out of a phase, just like in the financial sector, where the government was loath to regulate," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Tougher controls earlier in the food chain will result in fewer recalls and fewer outbreaks."

Bill Marler, a longtime food safety litigator who writes a blog about the issue, said: "Part of the problem with how we currently deal with food-borne illness cases is we wait until people get sick and die, and then we announce an outbreak. It seems that the focus here is a bit on preventing it before we have sick and dead people, as opposed to counting the bodies after salmonella or E. coli is out of the barn."

Still, some advocates cautioned that new programs must be carefully crafted to avoid doing more harm than good. Some proposals, such as the efforts to establish a product tracing system and salmonella prevention guidelines for fresh produce, remain vague.

It brings "to mind the old saying about the devil being in the details," said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of the Washington-based nonprofit Food & Water Watch. The government "must take care to avoid one-size-fits-all standards that cater to the largest industrialized producers and processors of food."

Many key changes will be left to Congress, including the controversial issue of giving federal agencies the authority to recall tainted products if a manufacturer refuses. This would make it easier for consumers to find out where recalled food was sold.

Legislators are also considering several bills to tackle issues not included in the working group's recommendations. Reps. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) and John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) want to give the FDA the authority to recall tainted food, to "quarantine" suspect food, and to have the ability to impose civil penalties and increased criminal sanctions on safety violators. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has proposed separating the agency's food safety responsibilities by establishing a new Food Safety Administration. In the Senate, Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) hopes to give the agency a larger budget with more inspectors and stronger regulatory tools. 7-08-09

U.S. narrows salmonella warning to Mexican jalapenos
Source of Article: http://www.chiroeco.com/
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials urged consumers on Friday to avoid only raw jalapeno peppers from Mexico, narrowing an earlier warning against eating any fresh jalapenos amid an outbreak of salmonella illness.
The Food and Drug Administration now believes jalapeno and serrano peppers grown in the United States are not connected to the nearly 1,300 salmonella cases reported since April, Dr. David Acheson, FDA associate commissioner for foods, told Reuters in an interview.
Investigators seeking the source of the outbreak have been probing clusters of illnesses in various locations.
"All the ones we have been looking at have been traced back to Mexico," Acheson said.
Officials are trying to pinpoint a particular region or farm as the source of the contamination, which came from a strain known as Salmonella stpaul, he added.
Investigators had focused early in the probe on tomatoes as a possible culprit. Last week, regulators lifted their warning on tomatoes not because they were cleared from suspicion, but because any that could have been contaminated would have spoiled and been discarded by that time.
"Available data does not exonerate tomatoes at this point," Dr. Ian Williams of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Enrique Sanchez, the director of Mexico's National Sanitation and Farm Food Quality Service, called the decision "arbitrary" and said it could have an "enormous" harmful impact on the local jalapeno industry.
"The FDA is taking a decision without scientific proof," Sanchez told Reuters. "In Mexico there is no outbreak reported by the health ministry that indicates, not even suspiciously, that there is a salmonella outbreak in Mexico."
Mexican officials will conduct their own investigation, said Marco Antonio Sifuentes, a spokesman for
the Mexican agriculture ministry. Mexico says the Salmonella stpaul strain has not been detected in the country.
"We have said it so many times that we're tired of repeating it. There does not exist one single case of Salmonella stpaul in Mexico," Sifuentes said.
The agriculture ministry said it has seen no scientific evidence from U.S. authorities that the tainted jalapenos originated in Mexico.
"In the case of tomatoes, the FDA made a serious error. Now they are committing another big mistake because of their incompetence," Sifuentes said.
The FDA's Acheson said U.S. officials were working closely with Mexican authorities on the investigation.
Food safety experts say finding the outbreak's source has been difficult because people had trouble recalling what they had eaten before they became ill and the produce had been discarded by the time inspectors could follow up.
Serrano peppers have also been scrutinized as a possible source. The FDA still advises the elderly and people with weak immune systems to avoid eating raw serrano peppers from Mexico, Acheson said.
On Monday, the FDA said a single jalapeno pepper at a Texas distributor was contaminated with the strain of salmonella detected in the outbreak. That pepper originated in Mexico. The FDA said on Friday it had determined the contamination did not originate at the Texas distributor.
The latest salmonella illness was reported to have occurred on July 10, bringing the total to 1,294, Williams said.
Cases have been reported in 43 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, and 242 people have been hospitalized.
Salmonella poisoning, which causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps is very common, with 40,000 cases and 400 deaths each year in the United States alone.