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Week 7: Food Safety in a Global Environment – Global Food Safety Standards
Overview:
Welcome to Week 7.
During week 7, we will continue to expand our study of food safety beyond our kitchens, and beyond our communities. We will take a look at the implications of a global, interconnected society and what that means in terms of food safety, and we will study some global food safety standards that are aimed at keeping the world’s food supply safe for all.
Course Objective(s):
CO2: Examine how cultural practices and economic circumstances affect the safety of the food supply
CO3: Demonstrate strategies for purchasing, storing, preparing, and serving safe food
CO4: Identify food safety barriers in a global, interconnected environment, including the impact of tampering and bioterrorism
Food Safety in a Global Environment
INTRODUCTION
During week 7, we will continue to expand our study of food safety beyond our kitchens, and beyond our communities. We will take a look at the implications of a global, interconnected society and what that means in terms of food safety, and we will study some global food safety standards that are aimed at keeping the world’s food supply safe for all.
Imported Food
We’ve been exploring practical ways to practice food safety protect ourselves and our families, and we have expanded our awareness beyond our own home kitchens, beyond our own communities, and now we expand our study beyond borders. In today’s interconnected global economy, an improper harvesting or drying practice for manufacturing spices in a country on the other side of the world can actually lead to a foodborne illness outbreak in your own neighborhood. Food and ingredients for food manufacturing are imported and exported globally, so how do we ensure that the food across borders is safe to consume?
Problems with the global supply chain have been hot topics for a while now…unapproved antibiotics in seafood, poisoned toothpaste, deadly dog food, baby formula tainted with melamine…living in the global marketplace, American consumers rely heavily on imported food, and put a great amount of trust into our import inspectors to ensure our imported food supply is kept safe. Yet, do you have any idea how much of the imported food is actually inspected?
There are many consumer advocacy groups calling for the improvement of the monitoring of the food supply chain. You can read details about imported food entering the United States on the USDA’s Economic Research Service website(this link opens in a new window/tab) . Because of population size and the demand for a variety of foods not grown in the U.S., it is estimated that about 20% of the food consumed in 2020 was imported.
For the most up to date data, you can download a table here:(this link opens in a new window/tab)
By law, it is the companies importing the food products that are responsible for ensuring the products imported and introduced into U.S. interstate commerce are safe. The FDA does however maintain a right to inspect any food products arriving at U.S. ports. For more details about policies and regulations related to imports, please view this informational page(this link opens in a new window/tab) from the FDA and USDA.
To show that this has been an ongoing problem in the news, let’s go back a few years. In 2007 a story featured on NBC Nightly News revealed that although the U.S. imports 80% of the fish and shrimp eaten in this country, the FDA tested less than 2% of those imports. Testing conducted on imported seafood by Alabama’s Department of Agriculture shows that in some cases, 40 to 50% of these imported fish were tainted with toxic chemicals that can cause serious health issues. The drugs that were being found were antibiotics and other drugs that are used to keep the fish alive in sewage-filled, diseased waters. The FDA blocked imports of 5 species of imported fish until their importers could prove they were not contaminated.
HAS AMERICA LOST CONTROL OF ITS SEAFOOD?
Seafood: The Best Defense is to Be Informed
If you are like me, after reading that last section and watching the video, you might have thought to yourself, “Well, I guess I’m not eating seafood anymore. There goes sushi night!” However, there are a few companies in the United States who are voluntarily trying to do the right thing in the interest of their consumers and the industry as a whole. Granted, you will likely pay more for seafood that is tracked; but the alternative is to be complicit in the “standard practice” of buying and consuming seafood that’s been shipped to China, processed using possibly illegal (for US standards) practices, and shipped back again. The choice is yours. When you can, I encourage you for the greater good, to choose to be informed. You can start with the following resources:
• Trace My Catch(this link opens in a new window/tab) is a website available from Clover Leaf, a San Diego-based company owned by Bumble Bee Foods. You can source your canned tuna, salmon and sardines using the alpha-numerical code on the can.
• Foodandwaterwatch.org(this link opens in a new window/tab) is an independent, non-profit watchdog organization based in Washington, DC that promotes healthy food and water achievement in the United States.
• Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch(this link opens in a new window/tab) is a site dedicated to helping businesses and consumers make sustainable seafood choices. They also have an app available for both iPhone and Android.
• Seafood Source (this link opens in a new window/tab) is an industry trade organization and has a ton of information available for free for consumers.
• Red’s Best(this link opens in a new window/tab) is a network of American-based fisherman that ensures all seafood products are labeled with a QR code, tracing the chain of custody right back to the fisherman who caught your dinner.
The next time you are shopping in the frozen fish aisle in your grocery store, before you buy, look to see if there is a QR code on the bag or box. Although still limited in many areas, you can find frozen seafood products that use them. When you can, encourage these kinds of best practices by supporting/buying from these fisherman, processors, and seafood product producers.
Food Safety Modernization Act
Fast forward a few years. Michael Taylor, Deputy Commissioner for Foods for the FDA said in his February 17, 2011 speech at the Global Food Safety Conference in London, England “Consider just a few numbers: 15 percent of the entire U.S. food supply is imported, including about 50 percent of our fresh fruits, 20 percent of our vegetables, and 80 percent of our seafood” (Taylor, 2011). He was giving a speech referencing the newly signed FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which increases the responsibilities and scope of the FDA as it pertains to food safety.
Provisions include regulation over the production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables, increasing inspections of food facilities and mandating recalls of unsafe food if the company fails to do it voluntarily. While percentages were tough to discern when reading the document, with this legislation, the FDA is also directed to inspect at least 600 foreign food facilities during 2011, doubling those inspections over the next five years (U.S.FDA, 2010). An estimated $2 trillion in imported products entered the United States in 2010 and experts expect that amount to triple by 2015, so they’ve got their work cut out for them.
Taylor (2011) went on to stress that this new legislation relies on the global food supply chain to ensure the safety of food imported into the US, and stated that “Under the new law, we are charged with establishing a system for accrediting third-party auditors of foreign food facilities – auditors who can certify a firm’s or a facility’s compliance with U.S. standards with rigor, objectivity and transparency…and on whom FDA can rely as part of the food safety assurance system.” The safety system relies heavily on third party verification of foreign food imports. Does that reassure you?
Local Events, Global Concerns
Keeping up with food imports is a complex and ever-changing job, as is evident by one of the more recent concerns making the headlines in the last several years. As a result of the tsunami in Japan in 2011and the resultant nuclear reactor problems they faced, at the time it happened, there was a concern about whether or not there existed a direct radioactive threat to the US? Could that radioactive water being pumped into the ocean travel 5,500 miles and impact the west coast? CBS News Nuclear Safety Consultant Cham Dallas, professor at the University of Georgia, said no. People on the west coast don’t have to worry about health effects from radiation coming across the ocean or the air.
What about other products, like fish or dairy? When this event occurred, the Fish & Info Services Company (FIS) published an article stating that Taiwan’s Atomic Energy Council has not found abnormal levels of radiation in any of the food recently imported from Japan. In March of the same year, the FDA said that it was halting imports of dairy and produce from the affected area in Japan. Additionally, it also announced that seafood would still be sold to the public, but would be screened for radiation.
NBC News published an article in March 2011 in which they asked Andrew Maidment, an associate professor of radiology and chief of physics and radiology at the University of Pennsylvania if it was safe to eat fish from Japan. He said that the ocean’s size would help disburse the radiation so that fish will not be in danger. He did caution that shellfish could pose a problem because they are farmed in shallow waters close to shore (Sukplang, 2011).
Fast forward several years later after more studies could be done, the FDA was not able to find any evidence that the Fukushima incident affected any U.S. food products or any imported food from Japan. You can read a report(this link opens in a new window/tab) about how the FDA went about the studies and how they continue to monitor the situation.
Global Food Supply Chain: US Oversight
It is clear to see that we must continue to take steps to protect the U.S. food supply, as well as the food supply around the world as we live in a very interconnected society. Take some time to read through this USDA webpage (this link opens in a new window/tab) that lists and describes the various agencies associated with the safety of the food supply chain.
Global Food Safety Organizations
So beyond food imported into the United States, what is involved with protecting the overall food supply on a global level? Suffice it to say, the scope of this issue goes well beyond this course, but there are few major agencies and influences aimed at increasing food safety systems in and between countries around the world.
The Codex Alimentarius (Codex) is a food safety code that was established by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization in 1963. This was aimed at developing international food safety standards and promoting fair trade as the prevalence of cross border trading increased. There are 188 members of Codex across the globe and the system is often at the forefront of international concerns and drives national legislation in member countries, which cover 99% of the world’s population.
You can visit the home page of Codex(this link opens in a new window/tab) and read about International Food Standards. As you can tell, out of necessity, Codex covers a lot of different topics related to the safety of the food supply. Member countries are from all across the globe, with varying socio-economic conditions and infrastructure. They produce many different types of publications and videos for education and compliance purposes.
Conclusion
In an interconnected, global economy, we cannot take the safety of our food supply for granted. Many improvements in food safety monitoring and inspection have been accomplished, but there is still much work to be done.
References
Has America Lost Control of Its Seafood? (January, 2016). CNNMoney. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e33_Bjvgb1U
Sukplang, S. (2011, March 30). How radiation affects the fish. NBC News. Retrieved from http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/03/30/6378501-how-radiation-affects-the-fish
Taylor, M. (2011, February 17). The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act: A new paradigm for importers. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/downloads/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/OfficeofFoods/UCM254881.pdf
U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2010, December 23). US Department of Health & Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm237758.htm
U.S. food imports rarely inspected. (2007, April 16). NBC News. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/18132087/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/us-food-imports-rarely-inspected/#.WMAlGn9bh8A
Image Citations
“Photograph of a fish market with men overseeing whole and fileted fish being kept on ice.” by https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-fish-market-marketplace-3713/.
“Infographic explaining a Mars/IBM partnership to ensure food supply chain safety. From top to bottom: (1) clip art depiction of “Sequencing the Food Supply Chain” to drive advances in the safety of the global food supply; (2) “Metagenomics for Food Safety,” which entails sampling and sequencing the DNA and RNA of micro-organisms anywhere in the supply chain process (farm to table); (3) “Testing for the Unknown,” which includes analyzing hundreds of samples and millions of genes, combining those findings with contextual data (e.g., weather conditions and shipping methods) to identify safe ingredient microbiome profiles; and discover and identify new gene variants that could pose a safety hazard well before it gets to the delivery stage; and (4) “Food Safety Facts,” 1 in 6 people are sickened and 3,000 people die from a foodborne illness annually in the United States, 2 million people die globally each year from foodborne disease, foodborne disease costs $80 Billion annually.” by https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibm_research_zurich/16195777259.
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