Enhancing the Safety of Pennsylvania Foods

According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 24 to 81 million cases of food-borne illness occur each year in the United States, resulting in 9,000 deaths. "The annual cost, estimated at $6 to $8 billion, is paid not only by the victims but also by farmers, food processing and food service industries, taxpayers, and everyone who purchases health insurance," says food scientist Stephen Knabel. "Large outbreaks have the potential to bankrupt companies and threaten entire segments of the food industry."

Our food travels along many steps from the farm to the table, and a problem in one segment of the food system affects the others. When an outbreak of food-borne illness occurs, every part of the food system is negatively affected. "Each sector has a special role in and responsibility for safeguarding our food," says Knabel. "Producers need to reduce the presence of pathogens at the farm level. Processors need to destroy pathogens and prevent recontamination. Consumers and food service workers need to handle foods properly during preparation. When it comes to food safety, the old cliché, "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,' is certainly true."

Stuart Nunnery, executive director of the Campaign for Food Literacy, which uses theatre as a teaching tool, addresses participants at a statewide conference designed to enhance the safety of Pennsylvania foods.

Faculty in the college want to make sure Pennsylvania's food system has no weak links. "Food safety efforts can succeed only when they are implemented from the farm to the table," says veterinary scientist William Sischo. "Each part of the food system has different perspectives on food safety issues, and companies have developed various approaches to solving food safety problems within their part of the system. But processors don't necessarily share information about their food safety practices with producers or retailers, and vice versa."

As part of a four-year initiative funded by USDA, a two-day forum in Harrisburg took the first steps in developing a statewide food safety alliance spanning every sector of the food system. Organized by co-chairs Sischo, Knabel, other faculty, and conference coordinator Claudine Nuernberger, the forum brought together representatives from industry, cooperative extension, government, and consumer groups to address food safety issues. "These players came together to identify strengths and weaknesses across the entire food system," Sischo says. "This was just the beginning of a process we hope will create strong partnerships and communication networks across the entire food system, resulting in the development of a food safety plan for Pennsylvania."

Over the next two years, working with extension agents and teams made up of representatives from different parts of the food system, Sischo, Knabel, and their colleagues will conduct a series of regional food safety conferences. "These will be similar to the statewide conference, but will be directed at local issues and involve community leaders," Sischo says. "The goal is to build interdisciplinary working teams that can develop specific plans for implementing food safety in each region. After we have input from each sector of the food system and each region of Pennsylvania, we will be in a great position to link each sector's views and techniques together to improve food safety across the system."

One approach already in use in Pennsylvania's animal industries is a system called HACCP, or Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points. "HACCP is designed to prevent outbreaks by strictly monitoring points where problems can arise to ensure that products are as safe as possible," Knabel says. "Many Pennsylvania companies, especially small and medium-sized producers, processors, and food service operators, will need help adopting HACCP systems, so we're teaching extension agents in every Pennsylvania county about it. These agents will team up with local health inspectors to offer training to food-related businesses and restaurants, as well as institutional food service operations."

To promote safe food-handling practices among consumers, college faculty are considering building an educational campaign around the USDA's new safe food-handling label. The campaign may include a video on how following instructions on the label will help prevent food-borne illness, and a food safety curriculum to teach students in grades four through six how they can prepare food safely. Meanwhile, Knabel and representatives of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health are collaborating with colleagues from Utah State University and Texas A&M on a USDA project to develop food safety training programs using satellite conferences, interactive video, CD-ROMs, and other state-of-the-art technology. "Properly used, these tools can help to teach many people simultaneously, even if they're in different states," Knabel says. "This pilot project may lead to a national model to deliver food safety instruction across the food system, from the producer to the consumer, by combining the expertise of different land-grant institutions and broadening their reach through new distance education technologies."

Ultimately, food safety education efforts in the college may have an enormous impact on the commonwealth. "By 1999, we hope to reduce the number of cases of pathogen contamination traced back to Pennsylvania animal producers and the number of product recalls by Pennsylvania food processors by 90 percent," Knabel says. "We also want to reduce by 50 percent the number of outbreaks and cases of food-borne illness due to mishandling in food service operations."