FOCUS: FOOD SAFETY CHALLENGES
By James C. Griffiths, Ph.D. and Markus Lipp, Ph.D.
Meeting Consumer
Demands while
Maintaining a Safe
Food Supply
ucts but also of the various ingredients
that comprise these foods—which, of
course, can impact overall product
safety and quality. As is common wisdom for food producers, it is much easier to control the end-product by
ensuring safe ingredients and processes
than by testing the end-products for
safety.
The food business is one of the most exciting industries to be a part of today. To address consumer preferences and
needs, the food industry needs to con-
tinuously develop new products, new
processes and new supply chains at a
rapid pace. New advances that broaden consumer access to an
array of foods seem to come to fruition continuously—from novel
sweeteners and salt substitutes to international flavors to the ever-
growing category of functional foods and beverages.
Consumers are increasingly demanding—they want tasty food that supports
good health, they want seasonal food year-round, they want food incorporating the
flavors of the day (yesterday’s pomegranate is today’s açaí), they want food in convenient portions and packaging that suits their busy lifestyles and they want food at
low prices, particularly given today’s economic realities. Manufacturers must work
hard through innovations, improved processes, business functions and new supply
chains to meet these expectations—many of which the manufacturers set themselves
through the marketing of their products. Of course, underneath it all, there is the
ultimate consumer expectation that goes without saying: that the food available for
purchase is safe. However, this may very well be the toughest challenge of all to
meet, given the complexities of modern food production, ingredient sourcing and
product distribution through long and complex supply chains.
A safe food supply requires several different elements, which have been highlighted quite comprehensively in previous articles. These include regulatory bodies
equipped with appropriate resources, ethical manufacturers and suppliers, tightly
managed supply chains and the existence of and adherence to independent standards of quality. When we speak of foods, we speak not only of finished food prod-
Focus on Food Ingredients
The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention
(USP), as an independent, standards-set-ting body, promotes public health by
publishing standards for the identity,
quality, purity and consistency of food
ingredients via the Food Chemicals Codex
(FCC) compendium. With these ingredients—such as colorings, flavorings, nutrients, preservatives, processing aids and
sweeteners—continuing to play an increasing role in the modern consumer’s
diet, ensuring their quality is essential as
the industry seeks to assure safety to
consumers.
Because we hear far less about food
ingredient quality and safety than, say,
microbial contamination of fruits, vegetables and meats, the question becomes
whether there is actually a need to focus
time, energy, expertise and resources to
this area. The answer is yes. This has
been proven through the problems that
have received widespread media coverage over the past few years, such as infant formula and pet food adulterated
with melamine—incidents that harmed
consumers and pets–caused by the undetected hazard that was intentionally
introduced into the food supply chain
as an adulterant to a bona fide food ingredient for pure economic gain. This
example not only demonstrates clearly
the hazard of an unsafe food ingredient,
but also the wide segments of consumers and industry that are detrimentally exposed and harmed from such
action. Long supply chains contribute
further to these crises by making it difficult to directly pinpoint and isolate the
source of the problem. The outcome
was tragic for the affected consumers
and devastating for the industries im-
