FDA seeks to reduce foodborne illness

WASHINGTON – The government announced on Monday a plan to expand its efforts to minimize foodborne illness associated with fresh produce.

The 2004 Produce Safety Action Plan builds on 1998 Food and Drug Administration advice for growers and shippers to include stores and consumers. Officials said it will become the basis for comprehensive safety guidelines covering fresh produce from the farm to the table.

Each year in the United States, 76 million people get sick from foodborne illness, more than 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 people die, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

At least 12 percent of foodborne-outbreak-associated illnesses were linked to fresh produce items in the 1990s, the CDC said.

The plan could result in new restaurant guidelines, increased surveillance of produce all along the food chain and stepped-up efforts to educate produce-handlers about safe practices.

Since fresh fruits and vegetables are a big part of a healthy diet and are vital in efforts to reduce obesity, it is essential to combat foodborne illness in produce, said Dr. Robert Brackett, director of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.

“We have to be more aggressive domestically and internationally to convince the production facilities that this is necessary,” he said. “Farmers need to realize they are producing food, not crops, something that can be in someone’s mouth within a couple of days.”

The FDA says scientific understanding of pathogens has advanced since the government came up with a plan for fresh-produce safety in 1998 that mainly addressed growers and shippers.

But some long-known safety practices are still not sufficiently followed, Brackett said. For example, meat, which could drip, should not be stored in the refrigerator above produce.

“We’ve preached this for years, but still some do it,” he said.

Because produce is grown in a natural environment, it is vulnerable to contamination by pathogens.

Factors that may affect the likelihood of contamination include agricultural water quality, use of manure as fertilizer, presence of animals in fields or packing areas, and health and hygiene of workers handling produce during production, packing, processing, transportation, distribution or preparation.

Chris Waldrop, health and safety associate for the Consumer Federation of America, said he is glad the FDA is focusing on produce because more and more produce is being implicated in foodborne pathogens.

While the plan puts greater focus on guidance, he said, there isn’t enough focus on enforcement activities such as increased inspection.

“Without increased enforcement activities and financial resources for FDA to support those activities, I don’t think it will be as effective as it could be.”

In concert with the plan’s release, a coalition of food-marketing, consumer and public health groups said it was sponsoring a campaign to inform people how to store and handle produce safely.

The campaign by the Partnership for Food Safety Education highlights the need to check produce for bruising and when it needs to be thrown out.