By Ron Margulis
The second night of the Food Safety Summit sponsored by FMI, NFPA and NRA and held in Washington, DC this week featured more than its share of reality as the war in Iraq interceded on everyone’s evening plans. As a result, much of the conversation Thursday was centered on what impact the war would have on the safety of the country’s food supply, with the people I lunched with questioning the readiness of supermarket retailers to respond to the threat terrorism.
Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss) had addressed the gathering of retailers, suppliers and allied tradesmen the previous morning, saying the federal government needs to improve its partnership with the private sector to keep the nation’s food supply free of intentional contaminants. "There’s no greater responsibility that the government has than the protection of our citizenry. We must work together to make sure our food supply is never used as a weapon," he said, adding that there are more than 7,600 professionals in the federal government working to address this and related challenges.
Sen. Cochran also briefly touched on the turf war that is brewing on the issue of food safety, which is covered by a variety of programs at USDA and FDA. This challenge arises because there are no direct lines of action/communication between these agencies and the new Dept. of Homeland Security.
While most at the sessions agreed the bigger threat was to processing plants, a risk still exists for retailers. Dennis Mullin, CEO of Birds Eye Foods, suggested the industry adhere to the "Four R’s" in the development and execution of a food safety system. They are --
- Review existing food safety systems.
- Research new food safety systems and determine budgets.
- Recommend a new food safety system.
- Repeat at least once each year.
Moderator's Comment: Are food retailers and their suppliers adequately addressing the potential threat to the food supply by terrorists? Is government oversight needed? [George Anderson - Moderator]