The United States food supply is among the world's safest and most wholesome. However, significant food safety problems can cause either human illness or economic losses that threaten the competitiveness of American agriculture. Recently, food safety, and in particular the control of food borne pathogens, has become an important thrust area for the entire federal government. A Food Safety Initiative (FSI) has been launched which includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Center for Disease Control of Health and Human Services (CDC), the Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), and Research, Education, and Economics (REE) of the USDA (REE includes the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Reduction in the potential health risks to consumers from human pathogens in food is the most important food safety issue and public concern. The Food Safety Initiative's Report to the President, May 1997 states:

'The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, a private nonprofit organization, estimated in its 1994 report, Food borne Pathogens: Risks and Consequences, that as many as 9000 deaths and 6.5 to 33 million illnesses in the United States each year are food-related. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that medical costs and productivity losses for seven specific pathogens in food range between $6.5 billion and $34.9 billion annually. Total costs for all food borne illnesses are likely to be much higher. Those estimates do not include the total burden placed on society by the chronic illness caused by some food borne pathogens. Several population groups have increased susceptibility to food borne infections, such as persons with lowered immunity due to HIV/AIDS and those on medication for cancer treatment or for organ transplantation, as well as pregnant women and their fetuses, young children, and the elderly. Patients taking antibiotics or antacids are also at greater risk of infection from some pathogens. The consequences of food borne disease are particularly serious for those with inadequate access to health care, such as homeless people, migrant farm workers, and others of low socioeconomic status.'

The FSI puts a safety assurance system into place for the harvesting, processing, transportation, handling, and storage of food that emphasizes the prevention of food pathogens. This system, which relies on preventing food contamination, affects every step of the food production to consumption process (the farm to table continuum). Thus, animal feed safety is an integral part of human food safety. ARS is fortunate in having the resources, including appropriate physical facilities, state-of-the-art laboratory equipment, and scientific expertise and experience to address and make significant contributions in these areas. ARS has previously addressed problems covering the entire spectrum of agriculture. The knowledge of these efforts can be drawn upon to address, in a timely manner, the newly identified areas critical to food safety. ARS has a major role in fulfilling the research objectives of the FSI.

An economic component is also important to food safety issues. When pathogens result in illness and death, there is a loss of productivity in those affected. That follows through to producers and the food industry, who can lose many millions of dollars from unsaleable products and from responding to lawsuits. With mycotoxin contamination, the economic losses of food and feed each year cost United States producers, processors, exporters, and consumers millions of dollars. In years with severe mycotoxin problems, these losses have been estimated to exceed a billion dollars. The presence of mycotoxin-producing fungi costs agriculture many millions of dollars through reduced crop yields, decreased animal production, and losses to crop value (in both domestic and international markets). Similar dollar losses are estimated for the presence of plant toxins.

The food safety mission of ARS has historically addressed those questions and concerns about food produced in the United States. However, more food is now imported. Consumers do not generally differentiate the sources of their food. They want it safe no matter where it is produced. As consequence ARS now addresses some questions of safety concerning imported foods. In particular, the need for a methodology to detect whether imported food is contaminated with pathogens or illegal residues exists.

Although there are separate animal and plant focuses to food safety, there is a need to assure that the research is closely coordinated and programatically linked. Consumers want safe food of whatever origin. They do not differentiate between foods of plant and animal origin when it comes to safety. There are also overlapping issues that concern foods of both plant and animal origin. For instance, it has been recently recognized that zoonotic enteric pathogens may be carried on fruits and vegetables in sufficient numbers to result in human illness. Although the plant food product is the direct vector of the human illness in this case, the problem cannot be solved in plants alone. The pathogens must be controlled either in animals or in subsequent waste treatment to prevent animal waste from carrying pathogens to the fruits and vegetables, particularly those that may be consumed by humans without a microbiological killing step.

The Food Safety program of ARS does not have the mandate to address questions of human health related to food safety directly. Some of these issues include the number of pathogens necessary to cause human illness (including in specific subpopulations), the incidence of food borne illness in the United States, and the incidence by specific pathogen and specific food product. Although ARS research may contribute to answering these questions, ARS is not the agency primarily responsible. Such responsibility lies with the CDC. In a related area, those pathogens that grow and increase in humans only, and that become contaminants during handling and preparation of food, such as Hepatitis A, and Cyclospora cayetanensis are research areas where ARS could contribute. Although such pathogens have not been a traditional concern of ARS, the expertise of ARS scientists is being increasingly requested to help prevent their occurrence in human food. ARS does respond to such requests as much as our resources allow.

Research essential to meeting the objectives of the Food Safety National Program is also a part of other ARS national programs. This includes control of animal parasites of food safety concern contained in Animal Pests and Parasites, control of pathogens in animal manure in Animal Manure, Waste Utilization and Management, preharvest control of zoonotic bacterial pathogens in the Animal Diseases, minimization of losses from poisonous plants in the Grazinglands Management, and control of fungal disease in Integrated Crop Production and Protection. The Food Safety National Program will collaborate with these programs and others to meet program objectives.