SAFETY REGULATIONS

JOANNA RAMEY

WASHINGTON (FNS) -- The Clinton administration in its second term is expected to be just as focused on food safety as in its first four years.

The most notable example of its continued interest in the safety of the nation's food supply will be the release in the next few months of a sweeping interagency food safety proposal, encompassing the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the departments of Agriculture and Education and the Centers for Disease Control, among others.

While the administration so far has remained silent as to the details of the plan -- described only as attacking the "missing links" in the nation's food safety agenda -- food industry officials say they were given a glimpse into what's to be expected during a recent meeting with agency department heads.

At the meeting, federal officials, faced over the last four years with high-profile cases of illnesses caused by food-borne bacteria, expressed an interest in having a coordinated public education effort regarding food handling and preparation.

In addition, agency officials are looking at the possibility of an information-sharing program between the EPA, USDA and FDA about the use of new organic farming methods as alternatives to pesticides and any connection between pesticide use and cancer rates.

Tracking the frequency, type and causes of food-borne illnesses could also be part of the initiative, as well as improving the surveillance of food inspection programs in foreign countries that export to the United States.

The announcement of an interagency food safety plan, coordinated by the White House, is expected to be unveiled by the President with as much fanfare.

"I don't want to minimize the value of what they come up with, but it's clear that food safety issues are politically lucrative," said John Aguirre, vice president, government affairs, United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association.

"Undoubtedly, consumers take a satisfaction in seeing government take action to minimize risk in food supplies."

Tom Wenning, general counsel, National Grocers Association, said the food industry should benefit from a joint agency initiative. "It's better than the agencies working at cross purposes," he reasoned.

Kevin Burke, vice president of public affairs for Food Distributors International, said he expects Clinton's call for an interagency food initiative to be paired with an administration-based call for Congress to increase funding for the FDA and CDC targeted at food safety.

Any new funding, he said, should be doled out with care. "The entire system at FDA is already too cumbersome," Burke commented.

Other food safety issues on deck during a second Clinton administration include:

The EPA's implementation of the Food Quality Protection Act, passed this year, which sets new safety standards for both raw and processed produce. The agency is also starting to review pesticides as part of a 10-year study to see which chemicals should be outlawed.

The USDA issuing standards for defining when meat or agricultural products can be called organic. The USDA has been mulling these standards since Congress called for an organic definition four years ago.

The FDA and USDA establishing a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points program for transporting meat and dairy products. The refrigeration of perishables is considered a weak link in the food distribution system.

Clinton began his first administration with a food safety scare, also tied to virulent E. coli that was found in fast-food hamburgers. That contamination led to several deaths, more than a hundred incidences of illness, and widespread negative publicity for the industry and for the government's inspection procedures.

In response, the administration began targeting ways to better detect E. coli in meat. One controversial program launched by Clinton's USDA was a random testing program of ground meat at supermarkets for the presence of E. coli.

Supermarket industry representatives here and throughout the nation protested that the testing program was ill-considered, because it is not aimed at what they see as the source of contamination: slaughtering and packaging houses.

The administration then addressed this and other complaints with the release of plan for a major overhaul of meat and poultry inspection, designed to reduce the incidence of contamination through the presence of pathogens, by requiring producers to institute industry practices based on HACCP programs.

Technicalities surrounding this inspection overhaul are still being ironed out.

Sara Lilygren, senior vice president of legislative and public affairs for the American Meat Institute, said she is hopeful that food safety won't become as politicized as it was during Clinton's first term.

One of her reasons: the recent appointment of HACCP and food safety veteran Tom Billy as the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service administrator, who was second in charge of FSIS for the last two years.

Billy succeeds Mike Taylor, who acted as both FSIS administrator and as acting undersecretary for food safety. It was under Taylor's watch that the testing of ground beef at supermarkets for the presence of E. coli was instituted.

Before joining the USDA, Billy was director of the FDA's Office of Seafood, where he oversaw the development of a seafood industry HACCP, which goes into effect in December 1997. The seafood HACCP marked the government's first use of the relatively new state-of-the-art food inspection system that identifies points of possible food contamination and establishes a schedule for testing of these points for the presence of bacteria and analysis of ways to prevent contamination.

"What was challenging for the industry with Taylor is that he was acting as a political appointee and as an administrator. He was wearing two hats, so there was an element of politics," said Sara Lilygren, senior vice president of legislative and public affairs, American Meat Institute. "With Billy you don't have that, which is why with him I think we will have someone interested in pragmatic problem solving, rather than political posturing."

In addition to handling the apple juice contamination scare, the FDA has the implementation of the seafood HACCP at the top of its food safety agenda.

Lee Weddig, president of the National Fisheries Institute, said there are a variety of issues to be decided before the seafood HACCP program can be launched next December.

One of the most crucial points regards regulations governing imported seafood, which comprises about half of the fish and shellfish consumed in the United States.

The seafood HACCP plan requires that foreign seafood processors abide by the FDA's HACCP rules, but the agency has yet to say what documents are needed for a supplier to prove adherence to the program.

Weddig said that absent such direction, he foresees a host of problems that could cause delays in deliveries of fresh seafood to retailers.