Who will "supervise" the supervisors- A dangerous regulatory system!

Is accepting "hospitality" from the industry one is supposed to supervise an acceptable practice from an ethical angle? It depends on what is meant by the word hospitality. According the English dictionary it denotes the relationship between the host and a guest and may involve "friendly reception and generous entertainment" . Here again there is ambiguity regarding reception and what type of entertainment is provided. One thing is clear that a government employee or a person contracted to inspect food processing facility cannot be considered a guest since it is a part of a regulatory system where "quid pro" considerations are irrelevant. How sincere a person can be in accepting hospitality from a company where he has been deputed to find whether safety norms are scrupulously followed  or not? It is like giving a judiciary functionary hospitality probably to get a favorable judgment from him which is blasphemy! This is what is happening with US Department of Agriculture whose personnel deputed to over see safety of processing facilities at different places are reported to be allowed to accept hospitality from the company supposed to be hauled up for violations! How trustworthy could that system be and how can consumers repose confidence in such a system, especially at a time when there is a backlash against many questionable practices by the industry being reported in that country? Read the report below and feel how sad such a situation can be when it comes to the common man who trusts the government to protect his health through powers conferred on it. 

Critics refer to the phenomenon as "regulatory capture" — when government inspectors become overly influenced by the industry they regulate. While the accusation is lobbed at many federal agencies, some say USDA is especially vulnerable because it's charged with enforcing the law at facilities that also pay for its services."It's a risk USDA would be more prone to that sort of capture," said Sebastien Pouliet, an Iowa State University economics professor who specializes in food safety. Unlike the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the USDA provides grading, certification and verification services intended to improve agricultural companies' marketing of a variety of farm products, he said. In effect, these processors are the USDA's customers, Pouliet said. "There's sort of a conflict of interest." USDA's Office of Communications did not respond to several requests for comment. More than 2,000 employees of the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service grade, audit, certify and inspect $150 billion worth of food a year. USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service employs more than 8,000 people who inspect about 150 million livestock carcasses and 9 billion poultry carcasses a year. In the case of Snokist Growers, the company hired the Agricultural Marketing Service to grade its canned applesauce so the product could be used in school lunches and USDA food programs. Alguard said she and other inspectors were told to prevent the old applesauce from being sold to USDA, but to disregard the problem in Snokist's products intended for the public. "My boss wanted to keep them happy," she said. "He's there to keep the income flowing into his office so he can stay employed." The applesauce policy contravened an agreement the agency had with FDA to report food safety issues, she said. In 2011, some school children were sickened by Snokist Growers' applesauce, which prompted an investigation by FDA. The illness turned out to be caused by defective cans that allowed pathogens to survive, but Alguard said she told FDA inspectors that moldy bins of applesauce were regularly being reprocessed when they showed up at the plant. "I just knew it was my chance because my boss wasn't going to do anything about it," she said. "They were stunned, to say the least."The FDA's investigation concluded that the mold released toxins into the applesauce that could cause health problems even if the product was heated during canning.

One of the reasons for such undesirable practices creeping into the regulatory system is the onus put on the industry to pay for the expenses of inspectors deputed as the government claims it has no money to meet such expenditure! Is it not a pity that World's most powerful country has no money to spend on citizen's safety vis-a--vis food processed and marketed in the country but spends trillions of dollars on arms race, space exploration and dominating other countries. This is a country where life style diseases like Obesity, Diabetes, Heart Disease are widely prevalent and the country has no money for dealing with these scourges! Some of undesirable practices being followed by the industry resulting in millions of food poisoning incidences can be attributed to this sham of a process called "inspection". Unfortunately most of the law makers in that country are captives of the powerful industry which sabotages any thing coming from the government intended to safe guard the interests of the citizen! Can any one solve this mega puzzle?

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

PRODUCE STANDARDS HARMONIZATION-NEED OF THE HOUR

World trade on fresh produce has been facing some problems as standards and specifications adopted by different countries were in conflict many times creating trade logjams upsetting the business system as a whole. It is always the case that buyer is supreme and the supplier has the responsibility to meet the contractual obligations entered into before striking a deal. Disputes, differences and misinterpretations invariably mar such trade deals and fresh produce being highly perishable cannot afford to be delayed during shipment. The Harmonized standards acceptable to all countries will go a long way to avoid such unnecessary disputes causing trade disruptions. Also of significance is the cost of auditing and the burden it poses to small producers and exporters and it is here that the inspection needs to be simplified, streamlined and made cost effective. Here is a take on this important issue which is the focus of attention in some countries in the forefront of fresh produce marketing. 

"Experience has shown that more and more produce customers are requiring audits of their suppliers, including small and local suppliers, and that customers are realizing the costs of redundant audits are adding to their own costs, regardless of who pays for the actual audit. The broad acceptance of the Harmonized Standards by major produce buyers seems to show a road forward to meeting the industry's objective of reducing the audit burden without sacrificing safe produce growing and handling practices. Even while some buyers have restrictions on who can do the audits, having one checklist for all audits has to reduce the audit burden of differing standards. Further, the expectation is that buyers, seeing the same audit results from different audit organizations, will eventually accept an operation's existing audit results without requiring another, thereby further reducing the audit burden. When they see different audit results for the same operation, using the same standards, from different audit organizations, questions will come back to where they rightfully belong—the audit process—and the marketplace will begin to weed out the poor performers".

The dilemma of the buyers of fresh produce is understandable in the light of a series of food poisoning episodes involving such simple commodities like spinach, water melon, tomato etc and with the traceability burden becoming too heavy and uncertain buyers must be on alert regarding import of tainted commodities. Harmonized Standards, therefore will go a long way to address this intractable problem and world bodies like FAO and WTO must intervene to make them universally acceptable and practiced. There is a need to set up a trade dispute resolving mechanism that can settle differences quickly with least delay. Auditors need to be accredited after careful evaluation of their credentials and the cost of auditing must be brought down to affordable levels. Will this happen in the foreseeable future? Probably the world seems to be moving in this direction and a cooperative regime involving industry, governments and international bodies can make the world much more safer vis-a-vis the consumers.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

POULTRY PROCESSING-HAZARDS REMAIN IN SPITE OF NEW INSPECTION REGIME

The much touted new safety regulations supposed to ensure better protection to American consumers does not seem to be of much significance if those experienced inspectors with hands-on experience in policing the industry are to be believed. On the contrary the situation is likely to become worse because lot of trust is being placed on the industry for self inspection and self regulation. On one hand the inspection regime does not have adequate technical personnel to man the fast moving processing lines to do justice the spirit of safety inspection due to paucity of funds. On the other hand the industry is being allowed to to speed up production lines up to three birds a second to oblige their insatiable thirst for higher productivity and profitability. Here is a take on this emerging scenario in the US poultry industry which does not bode well for the future.

USDA's proposed rule to "modernize" the poultry inspection system would allow plants to speed the inspection line up to 175 birds per minute — that gives inspectors about a third of a second per bird to check for feces, tumors, defects, disease or other factors that could make consumers sick. (Read more on the rule and see what an animated version of one carcass per third of a second actually looks like here). Conventionally, plants could run poultry lines as fast as 140 carcasses per minute, but there were at least four FSIS inspectors on the line responsible for 35 birds each. Painter says that at the plant he's currently stationed at, which is participating in HIMP, the line was averaging up to 181 birds a minute with two plant-employed sorters and Painter at the end of the line. He says: "There's no humanly way possible two people can look inside 90 birds a minute." After the proposed modernization rule was published, USDA told the plant to cut its speed down to 175 birds per minute, Painter reports. Not that that makes much of a difference. "It's totally hands-off inspection," he told me. "Actually, it's not inspection, it's visualization. If you can't touch them, how can you inspect them? You can't even see inside the carcass." So, how can a plant meet basic food safety standards with less inspection? One way is dousing the poultry in chemicals. In fact, Painter told me that USDA encourages the use of chemicals. One chemical is called per acetic acid, an antimicrobial agent used to reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens salmonella and campylobacter. The problem is that after the carcasses are sprayed down with per acetic acid and then put in the chiller, depending on the chlorine concentration of the chiller, "it can be like having a bucket of bleach under your nose," Painter said. He said that it's not unusual to hear from poultry plant workers who say they're becoming ill after exposure to the chemical combination. "These chemicals keep getting pumped into the plant, but they don't increase ventilation," he said. Painter predicts that if current line speeds stay in place, he thinks plants will increase their reliance on chemicals to make up for inspection gaps. Painter said he'd "bet my last nickel on it." Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist for the food program at Food & Water Watch, said he and his colleagues suspect that poultry plants manipulate the levels of chemicals depending on when FSIS conducts salmonella testing. Testing kits are sent directly to the plant, not to the inspector, Corbo told me, so the plant gets a convenient heads-up. So, while USDA says that the new "modernized" inspection system is leading to reduced rates of salmonella, Corbo said plants can easily manipulate their systems to prepare for FSIS testing. He also noted that while industry says the chemical residue left on the poultry is fairly small, "I don't think anyone's doing any long-term testing to see if that's the case." In 2011, Corbo filed a Freedom of Information Act request to view data coming out of the HIMP plants. He found that plant-employed inspectors, as opposed to FSIS inspectors, where not upholding food safety standards. According to a Food & Water Watch news release, "the records show that bile, sores, scabs, feathers, and digestive tract tissue are often not being properly removed from chicken carcasses." Corbo said that the overwhelming majority of noncompliance reports coming from HIMP plants and filed by FSIS inspectors are for fecal contamination in the cavity of the bird. But if the FSIS inspector can only truly inspect a small fraction of the carcasses that speed by on the line each day, "we don't really know how many of those carcasses actually got into commerce," he said. "Essentially, the attitude of the industry is that chicken isn't something people eat raw…it has to be properly cooked," Corbo said. "They're saying it's really the responsibility of the consumer, which we think is ridiculous. The industry has a responsibility here too. …(With this proposed rule), we're essentially leaving it up to one (FSIS) inspector at the end of the line and chemicals to prevent food-borne illness from entering the food supply." Painter, who himself is struggling with health problems he believes stems from food tainted with salmonella or campylobacter, says he's not optimistic that there's enough opposition to stop the proposed modernization rule. His advice? "Wash it, clean it, cook it thoroughly." "I've worked for poultry prior to working for (USDA)," he said. "I'm not anti-industry…but we can't expect a plant to regulate itself when a dollar value is involved."

It is understandable that industry has to increase productivity very significantly to meet with the ever increasing demand of the consumers for chicken meat and products derived from it. But compromising the safety of these products, whatever be the excuse, cannot be condoned under any circumstances. Increased use of chemicals like per acetic acid and high levels of chlorine can be counter productive, besides being dangerous for the consumer as ell as the personnel working in the plant. Frustration experienced by the inspecting personnel is reflected in their advice to the consumers that they should not trust the industry and in stead take appropriate measures for cleaning and cooking the material at their home! The danger is magnified when it is realized that feces-contaminated poultry meat stored in kitchen refrigerators can pollute other food materials like fruits, vegetables, milk etc causing much more damage eventually.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

FOOD TESTING-NEPAL'S NEW INITIATIVE

The problem of food adulteration is assuming serious proportions in many countries including many economically wealthy ones and it is becoming more and more acute in most of the third world countries including India. The root cause of such a disturbing situation is under developed infrastructure for monitoring, inadequate testing personnel and poor analytic facilities. Bureaucratic and legal delays in processing the food adulteration cases further compound the problem. Against such a background it is pleasing to hear from Nepal that the government there, in spite of the current political instability, is taking progressive steps to tackle food safety problems. Here is a take on this new development which must be applauded.

"The Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) has decided to put its mobile inspection van on the road by the end of this week. The vehicle is equipped with advanced equipment enabling department inspectors to test the quality of a food sample instantly on the spot. The DFTQC will use the van to test for adulteration like inedible colours and unwanted micro-organisms in food sold in the market. "We will be using the van to check the quality of food items being sold in the market," said Pramod Koirala, spokesperson for the DFTQC. "It will help food inspectors to test the food on the spot and take immediate action," he said. The DFTQC has rolled out its lab on wheels amid growing cases of adulteration of food stuff. Last year, the department found 20.83 percent the food items it checked to be adulterated or substandard. According to the DFTQC, bottled water, milk and milk products, ghee and edible oil and sweets products are among the substandard products found in the market. Currently, the department needs to send the food specimens collected from the market to its laboratory situated at the DFTQC's central office for tests. This has delayed identifying impurities in the food items and punitive action against the wrong doers. This has also made its food quality control ineffective. "Thevan will allow us to file a case or recommend action against offenders immediately," said Koirala. According to him, there will be two food testing officers in the van . Although the DFTQC plans to test 1,000 food samples every year, its inspection effort has been ineffective due to lack of manpower and other resources. Currently, the department has been conducting inspections only once a week. With the use of the labvan , the DFTQC has planned to increase the frequency of market inspection. "As the using the van is cost effective for the purpose, we will also increase the number of food samples for cross checking," said Koirala.
The department acquired the van , which has a price tag of Rs 10 million".

With almost one fifth of the food products made in Nepal being found adulterated, one outdoor van for on-the-spot testing may be too few to cope up with the situation. It is possible the government may expand this type of facilities by investing more money in acquiring such modern mobile outdoor labs in the coming years after gaining experience with the first one currently launched. Unless the manufacturers and traders involved in food related activities are sure about severe consequences of playing around with the lives of consumers through unsafe products, the ever increasing number of food related health episodes cannot be checked satisfactorily. Nepal is setting a fine example to other countries to follow with such new initiatives.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

TIGHTENING REGULATIONS ON FOOD TRUCKS-IMPROVING CONSUMER SAFETY

Any venture during its infancy needs protection and consideration till grows to a level of reasonable strength and self reliance. This is true of the nascent mobile food vending movement taking roots in the US. Unlike in India where food safety consciousness is at a very low level, the US consumer is super sensitive to the dangers posed by ill managed food handling joints and this is reflected by the current efforts in bringing this food vending outlets into the main stream catering sector through safety standards and monitoring. Naturally there is some resistance to this move by the safety authorities because of added cost and logistical constraints but in the interest of consumer health, government cannot shirk its responsibility in this area of vital concern. According to present thinking of the authorities, food trucks that span the entire country have come of age and as an institution serving consumers they will have to be transparent in their activities which can be brought about by regular inspections, grading etc.

"The new policy would require about 6,000 catering trucks operating throughout the county to undergo three inspections a year: two graded inspections and one certification inspection. Depending on the outcome, the truck would have to display a placard with a grade of "A" (scoring above 90 percent in food safety and quality), "B" (scoring above 80 percent) or "C" (scoring above 70 percent). Any truck scoring below a C grade would be shut down. If the new policy is adopted Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the trucks - known as "mobile food facilities" - would also have to disclose detailed route information so that county inspectors can easily find them for random checks. A manager of Royal Catering Co., which runs trucks in Torrance, San Pedro and elsewhere, said the new policy is unnecessary. "People think we just drive a truck somewhere and start selling food," said the manager, who didn't want her name used because she was not authorized to speak for the Lynwood-based company. "That is not the case. We undergo a number of Those in the industry say the policy appears to be another attempt to legislate the trucks out of business. Restaurant owners have long complained that the trucks steal business, block city streets and create other traffic hazards. Cities on The Hill recently enacted zoning laws that restrict how the trucks can operate: In Rancho Palos Verdes, they must move at least 500 feet every 10 minutes, and in Palos Verdes Estates, they must park within 250 feet of a restroom facility. The Los Angeles City Council began looking at new regulations for mobile food trucks in August of this year, due largely to complaints from area chambers of commerce. Most cities, including those in the South Bay, require certification and business license fees for these trucks, but defer to the county for health inspections of restaurants and other eating establishments. Currently, the county requires the trucks to be certified and inspected once a year. If county leaders adopt the new policy, cities must then pass conforming ordinances allowing health officials to inspect trucks that operate in their boundaries, Fielding said. As of now, the policy would only affect trucks and carts that operate in unincorporated areas, such as county areas near Harbor City and in Marina del Rey. It would go into effect within 30 days".

Of course the complaints regarding the functioning of food trucks were orchestrated by the organized business body probably because of business threats posed by food trucks to regular established caterers in many cities where they appear to be enjoying increased patronage from consumers. How ever, illogical restraints, difficult to comply with firman and harassment can sound the death knell for this nascent movement. All said and done, mobile street vending players do serve a useful role in meeting the needs of a substantial segment of the consumer community aspiring for new and diversified tasting foods at affordable cost and a balance needs to be struck between the need for consumer protection and the imperatives of a new emerging business with high growth potential.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

RESTAURANT OPERATIONS-THE SANITATION ISSUE

How does one choose a restaurant in a place not familiar, especially on travel or tourist jaunts? Grading of eateries is practiced in some countries but the customers have hardly any insight into the grade of a restaurant or an eating place during the visit as rarely there is any display containing such information. Even if the grade is exhibited prominently, it does not guarantee that food is really safe. This is where some consumer activists are demanding transparency regarding the inspections made by the health authorities and the results of such assessment. One of the most pressing concerns is the hygiene and sanitation status of the facilities which has a direct bearing on the safety of foods prepared there. It is true that the owners of eating establishments display prominently any thing that eulogizes them while silent on their deficiencies. Of course ultimately the clientele of any business is built upon the reputation of the products and repeat visits can be expected only if the food is good with no bitter "after visit" experience.

"Posted outside restaurants' windows are menus, Zagat ratings and clippings of local newspaper reviews. What's missing, says D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh, is information about the restaurants' sanitary conditions. Cheh supports requiring restaurants to display a letter grade based on their most recent health department inspection. She says that now, residents must file public records requests for details on restaurant inspections".

Many restaurants try to segregate and hide the preparation area from the customers while the dining areas are decked up with attractive decor. An ideal situation could be to design eateries with the kitchen in the center of the place, visible to most of the diners and this puts the workers on full alert and caution resulting in more frequent cleaning, disciplined movements, clean environment, etc which can be expected to impress the customers. Greater awareness about hygiene and sanitation and to score over competition, are driving many restaurants to go for HACCP and other safety certification systems which is good for both the owners as well as the consumers.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"ILLICIT" MEAT TRADE-HUMAN WEAKNESS FOR THE FORBIDDEN

Human weakness for meat and other animal products has led to exploring many sources for their "edibility" and safety. Modern meat industry is built on stall fed livestock and caged birds and old timers still swear about the high quality of products derived from free grazing farm animals and country chickens before the advent of modern meat industry. Even to day people take immense pride for hunting wild animals in forests and angling fish from wild water sources which they consider as more tasty than the commercial counterparts. With international ban on hunting many species and national restrictions on shooting animals in protected sanctuaries, a roaring illegal trade in meat from some of the animals is reported to be flourishing and transport of these meat products from such animals across international borders, is aided by unethical nexus between the traders and the customs authorities.

"A team of researchers says the illicit trade could pose a risk to human or animal health and increase the demand for meat from threatened species. The figure is based on seizures from searches carried out over 17 days at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. The findings appear in the journal Conservation Letters. A team of researchers from France, Cambodia and the UK said it was the "first systematic study of the scale and nature of this international trade". "We estimate that about five tonnes of bushmeat per week is smuggled in personal baggage through Paris Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport," they wrote. During the 17-day study, a total of 134 passengers arriving on 29 flights from 14 African nations were searched. Nine people were found to be carrying bushmeat, which had a combined mass of 188kg. In total, 11 species were found - including two types of primates, two kinds of crocodiles and three rodent species - four of which were listed as protected species".

The report is alarming, raising doubts about the effectiveness of international agreements in saving many species under threat of extinction. Whether such illegal trade is confined to Africa as the source and Paris as the conduit center is not exactly clear. Probably France's connection to some of its former colonies and special status to people from such countries may be responsible for the illegal trade detected at Paris Airport. There is greater chance for such smuggling taking place in many entry points to Europe and it may be difficult to check personal baggage of international travelers by the security staff, already over burdened with terrorism related surveillance. What is not understood is the status of the fresh meat, highly vulnerable to bacterial infection, being ferried by the individual passengers in their cabin baggage, with respect to safety after it reaches the destination. Carrying fresh meat across borders is not permitted by any country and therefore most of the customs set ups at airports lack the facility to test the meat to determine the type of animal from which the meat is derived. It is time FAO of the UN steps in to help drawing protocols and equip the air port authorities in some of the vulnerable countries to deal with the new emerging threat from criminals who indulge in such illegal activities.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com