Is Your Thanksgiving Turkey Safe?

One key safety gap that’s especially relevant on Thanksgiving: Federal regulations allow producers to process poultry in a way that increases the risk of contamination from Salmonella and Campylobacter (CAMP-low-bacter), two dangerous bacteria. At many poultry plants, hundreds of carcasses are immersed together in vats of ice water to prevent spoilage, and to make them heavier for market. This process can spread the contamination from one bird to hundreds of others.

In addition, the Government Accountability Project (GAP), a non-profit law firm that represents whistleblowers, has heard from some US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspectors that agency managers have overturned safety decisions and retaliated against inspectors when they tried to enforce federal rules. Whistleblowers within the USDA – which inspects facilities that process meat – say they’ve been demoted, and say that when they’ve closed facilities for health reasons these decisions have been reversed.

Each year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the agency responsible for the safety of fruits, vegetables, eggs and seafood — inspects approximately 10% of domestic processing facilities it oversees. The average food product is processed through five or more facilities. Partly due to a lack of staff, the FDA inspects food production facilities as little as once every 10 years. Overseas facilites — there are likely hundreds of thousands of those — are almost never inspected. Furthermore, food and drug law does not require food companies to supply information from government regulators about where a potentially contaminated product has been shipped, even in the midst of a disease outbreak related to that food.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) conducted a survey of FDA and USDA scientists and inspectors and found hundreds who feel that public health has been compromised because their agencies too often yield to pressure from food and agricultural businesses, as well as the following:

• Hundreds of agency scientists and inspectors have experienced political interference in their work
• Fewer than half of the respondents are “completely” or “mostly” confident in the safety of fruits and vegetables
• A little more than a third of the respondents are “completely” or “mostly” confident in the safety of imported foods
• Only about half of the respondents are “fully” confident that eggs on the market are safe to eat. This concern was borne out by this summer’s recall of salmonella-tainted eggs.

A political battle over food safety: The Senate is now considering a bill, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S510), which would strengthen the FDA’s powers to test for pathogens and recall food.

Food safety and scientific integrity: The Obama administration pledged to release a new scientific integrity policy in March, 2009, but that has not yet happened. This policy would strengthen food safety by providing better protection for whistleblowers and ensuring that scientists and inspectors can speak publicly about their work.

Why would the USDA prevent inspectors from enforcing safety rules? What is the likelihood that the Food Bill will pass in the newly elected Congress? What can be done to improve scientific integrity at the FDA and USDA? What can consumers do to ensure a safe holiday feast?