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Steven Cohen

WASHINGTON, July 14, 2004 - U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Elsa Murano today released "Fulfilling the Vision: Initiatives in Protecting Public Health," a document that reviews recent successes and builds on the course laid out last year to improve the prediction and response to food safety challenges in order to further reduce the incidence of foodborne illness.

In 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman challenged the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to find creative and effective ways to continue to improve the safety of U.S. meat, poultry and egg products to better protect public health. FSIS, the public health agency of USDA, and its workforce of over 7,600 inspection and veterinary personnel regulate the safety of these products in approximately 6,000 plants nationwide.

Fulfilling the Vision presents a list of accomplishments for 2003, which included, enhancement to BSE safeguards, the development of new FSIS employee training programs, strengthened food security measures and modernization of enforcement activities. The document also introduces a number of new initiatives to continue FSIS' mission of ensuring food safety.

"We must use science to identify our greatest challenges and meet them head-on," Murano said. "Ensuring the safety of our food supply will require the active participation of everyone who produces, processes and prepares meat, poultry and egg products."

Murano noted that Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) initiatives to combat E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella have resulted in significant reductions in illnesses from those organisms, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For example, the CDC recently reported that illnesses from E. coli O157:H7 dropped by 36 percent from 2002 to 2003. CDC's reported trends are also reflected in regulatory sampling for the pathogens done by the Agency.

In Fulfilling the Vision, Murano lays out an ambitious agenda for the future improvement of food safety. These initiatives include:

Enhanced Data Integration - FSIS is developing innovative ways to anticipate and predict food safety risks in order to protect public health. To do this, the Agency is examining ways to secure and analyze a wealth of data obtained from industry and other sources so that trends can be recognized and problems quickly identified and corrected.

Apply Risk into Regulatory and Enforcement Activities - FSIS is beginning to field-test the Hazard Control Coefficient (HCC), a measurement of the effectiveness of pathogen controls used by individual establishments. The HCC establishes the level of plant compliance through an analysis of in-plant and Agency verification testing, as well as inspection data. The HCC will help the Agency better understand the frequency and types of food safety failures so that better responses can be designed and implemented.

Associate Program Outcomes to Public Health Surveillance Data - FSIS is working with the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on public health trends. Data that links foodborne illness outbreaks with specific foods needs to be connected with prevalence data of specific pathogens in specific foods. The Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, or FoodNet, allows the Agency and its partners to work toward this end by determining the burden of foodborne disease, monitoring foodborne disease trends and determining the extent of foodborne diseases attributable to specific foods. A critical component of this goal is the development of a mathematical model to help estimate illnesses caused by various food commodities.

Improving Food Safety Beyond our Borders - FSIS is working to establish a Food Safety Institute of the Americas to merge the region's resources and provide a focal point for the exchange of food safety information throughout North America. The Agency wants to assist in the development of common food safety standards and harmonize food safety education, information and communication throughout the region.

All of these initiatives will establish a stronger foundation for future advancement and achievements in food safety. It is essential that FSIS continues to modernize its inspection system through risk based approaches and adapt its management agenda to meet ever changing threats and challenges to protect public health.

The complete document, "Fulfilling the Vision: Initiatives in Protecting Public Health," can be found at http://www.fsis.usda.gov.

Public comments on the document can be submitted to:

Mary Cutshall
Aerospace Building
3rd Floor, Room 405
FSIS/USDA
1400 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, D.C. 20250