certain foods are more likely to get contaminated at certain points in that chain
than others. So from a food safety
standpoint, not only are we interested in
whether Food A is a greater risk than
Food B, but in looking a Food A we
want to know where in that product’s
life cycle is the food at the most risk for
contamination so that we can determine
where to best focus our prevention
strategies. In other words, if you think
the most risk for a particular item is on
the farm first and foremost then you are
not going to put your resources into
preventing problems at the farm.
Now to do that you have to understand the science around how to prevent, how to mitigate, and how to do
the risk ranking. That process is going to
drive prevention strategies very heavily,
and if you look at Food Protection Plan
in more depth you’ll find that a fair part
of the agency actions under prevention
go along those lines of determining
where the vulnerabilities are, what mitigations to put in place to prevent them,
and the corporate role and responsibili-
“Food safety is a partnership. It is a team
effort to make sure you end up with safe
products.”
ties in those determinations. I see the
agency’s role in this as providing leadership and a framework for approaching
the “prevention first” mindset. We
would endeavor to pass that framework
on to industry, which can then put the
prevention practices in place to safeguard the food supply. That, in turn,
will drive advancements in science, technology, and interventions that will benefit all stakeholders in achieving food
protection aims.
Food Safety Magazine: What other FDA
food safety initiatives are in progress or on the
horizon?
Acheson: There are a number of activities going on at the agency, and as we’ve
been discussing, the Food Protection
Plan is a significant one that falls under
the sole oversight of FDA. The Import
Safety Action Plan is another significant
initiative which involves 12 different
federal agencies and departments,
including FDA. The latter has a big
food component in it and, like the Food
Protection Plan, is modeled on the pre-vention-intervention-response framework. That is not a coincidence, FDA
worked very closely with the Import
Safety Action Plan group as we were
developing the Food Protection Plan so
that they would be complementary.
Whether we are talking about the
Food Protection Plan or the Import
Safety Action Plan, I would caution that
this is not a short-term sprint to get the
job done. We’ve embarked on a
marathon. We spent a lot of time thinking these initiatives through and at
FDA, we are committed to making
some key changes to focus on prevention and that’s a long-term fix. Of
course, everyone is looking for the quick
fix. Will we have it done by March?
Well, no, we won’t, but our goal is to
document progress and keep the communication channels open so that real-world benefits from its implementation
will be readily seen as the plans evolve.
In terms of other food safety and
defense initiatives, the Secretary has just
signed a Memorandum of Agreement
with China, one element of which
includes food and feed. This is focused
on the safety of specific products for a
specific country. Another initiative is the
FDA “Triple A,” which is the
Administrative Action Plan that
President Bush recently signed. This
reauthorization act, which involves
mainly drugs, also includes some foods
issues, and we have responsibility for its
implemention. These are a number of
ongoing initiatives that we are addressing
as part of the overall agency approach to
food safety and food defense.
