Avian Influenza, Leptospirosis, Salmonella, and many more are diseases caused by foodborne illnesses. The safety of our food supply is very important to our nation, and even though it may be hard to believe, a lot of safety concerns with food are often overlooked. Food scares have come and gone for many years in America. Everybody consumes food, some more than others, but the lack of education behind how safe our food actually is, is troubling. Compared to other nations, America has a growing epidemic of obesity. What attributes most to this is the easy access to fast food all over the country. Aside from being cheap, it is also very abundant. It is not hard to go five miles in any direction and find a McDonalds or Burger King on a street corner.
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Signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011, this new act aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it. According to fda.gov, these are some prevention techniques the FDA is using in compliance with this act, “Mandatory preventive controls for food facilities, mandatory produce safety standards, authority to prevent intentional contamination, and more.” With these new legislative standards, and strict mandates to perform them, there should be a dramatic increase in how much caution and care goes into making our food safe. One of the big challenges of this act will be the implementation of new requirements for FDA registered food facilities to conduct a hazard analysis and develop preventive control plans. A lot of the background work going on is actually happening at these food facilities, where employees actively participate in helping to prevent any hazards or accidents that can occur while handling food. A few examples of this according to fda.gov is, “Preventive controls include sanitation procedures for food contact surfaces, employee hygiene training, environmental monitoring to verify pathogen controls, a recall plan, supplier verification activities, and a food allergen control program.” This is the most progressive and active approach for food safety in many years. From the very bottom to the top, everyone is held to the same standard, and by making it mandatory for everyone to follow these guidelines appropriately, the FDA can hopefully prevent another food related outbreak and potentially save
Signed into law by President Obama on January 4, 2011, this new act aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus of federal regulators from responding to contamination to preventing it. According to fda.gov, these are some prevention techniques the FDA is using in compliance with this act, “Mandatory preventive controls for food facilities, mandatory produce safety standards, authority to prevent intentional contamination, and more.” With these new legislative standards, and strict mandates to perform them, there should be a dramatic increase in how much caution and care goes into making our food safe. One of the big challenges of this act will be the implementation of new requirements for FDA registered food facilities to conduct a hazard analysis and develop preventive control plans. A lot of the background work going on is actually happening at these food facilities, where employees actively participate in helping to prevent any hazards or accidents that can occur while handling food. A few examples of this according to fda.gov is, “Preventive controls include sanitation procedures for food contact surfaces, employee hygiene training, environmental monitoring to verify pathogen controls, a recall plan, supplier verification activities, and a food allergen control program.” This is the most progressive and active approach for food safety in many years. From the very bottom to the top, everyone is held to the same standard, and by making it mandatory for everyone to follow these guidelines appropriately, the FDA can hopefully prevent another food related outbreak and potentially save