Jim Hodges: Overcoming Food Borne Illnesses
11/23/2009 08:25AM
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Chuck Jolley: You’re marking the tenth year of the AMIF Food Safety initiative. During that time span, almost $7 million has been spent to support research to find ways to overcome food borne illnesses. Looking back, what can you call you biggest successes? And where do you need to do a better job going forward?
Jim Hodges: There is no one silver bullet that can solve food safety problems. Different pathogens require different approaches. I believe that our efforts in research and industry education have contributed toward the decline in both the prevalence of pathogenic bacteria like E. coli O157:H7 on fresh beef, Listeria monocytogenes on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, and, more recently, Salmonella in raw and ready to eat meat and poultry products. Contrary to media hype, progress has been made.
This progress in reducing pathogens is certainly our most important accomplishment and will continue to be the driving force behind AMI-supported research.
Going forward, though, we need to work harder to educate consumers about the role they can play in ensuring safe food all the way to the table. We also need to do more to educate media. I see a huge amount of inaccurate information reported by the media and unfortunately, media coverage can prompt policymakers to act. If they are acting based on bad information, it can further complicate our efforts to fight for science-based policies that will truly enhance meat and poultry safety.
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