Safety Rules

Food safety isn’t glamorous or sexy. It’s often difficult and esoteric, and is sometimes at odds with certain of today’s trends, like “fresh,” “natural” and “organic.” But it’s a critical component of all we do when designing foods. Lest anyone forget that, the CDC estimates that 200 food-related illnesses—caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, toxins, metals and prions—result in 87 million illnesses, 371,000 hospitalizations and 5,700 deaths a year, with approximately 1,800 deaths from pathogens alone.

Due to the high-volume, wide-distribution nature of the food industry, processed and commercial foods take the brunt of the heat, and that’s as it should be, as a lot of people depend on the safety of these products. After all, if you want to live on the edge and hang-glide without a harness, eat blood-rare hamburger and lick the mixing spoon from the brownies, that’s your choice and your consequences, but it’s a bit different if you want to take a hundred or so unsuspecting customers with you.

A recent Pew-commissioned poll by Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies says that, among likely U.S. voters, 89% support the federal government adopting additional food-safety measures. Of those surveyed, 64% believe that imported foods are often or sometimes unsafe, and 58% are concerned about bacterial contamination of the food supply—about a third of those saying they worry “a great deal.” In addition, 91% of those polled favor annual or semi-annual government inspections of facilities that process food that is at a high risk of contamination, of which 75% strongly favor this action.

Now, the public isn’t always tuned into reality—in a 2008 poll by CBS News and The New York Times, 53% of Americans said they wouldn’t buy genetically modified food, but that’s an entirely different issue for another time. If fact, if I were to hazard a guess, the public probably thinks federal inspections will virtually eliminate any and all problems, which of course, it won’t. But it will be a step in the right direction.

While those who take a laissez-faire approach decry pending legislation as federal “nannyism” and worry about cost, it’s at least a speed bump for those who, through intention or ignorance, or just the caprice of the fates, send contaminated food to the market. And the mechanism is already in motion: Congress is contemplating food-safety bills, and FDA is implementing new programs, like its electronic food registry for reporting potential foodborne illnesses.

We can do our part by putting more effort into food-safety steps, whether it’s during procurement, formulation, processing, distribution, testing or even consumer education. So, while antimicrobials, HAACP, hurdle technology, COAs, sanitizers, official methods and the like may not make the most scintillating conversation topics at the neighborhood cocktail party, in the greater scheme, we literally can’t live without them.

   -Lynn A. Kuntz