Food Industry Crisis By: Eric Oplinger

America and Foodborne Illness  Foodborne Illness: A disease that is transmitted by eating or handling contaminated food.  48 Million Americans are sickened to due to foodborne illnesses every year.  3000 died from foodborne illnesses, such as: Listeria, Salmonella, Camplyobacter, E-Coli and many others.

Where is the FDA?  In 2011, the FDA only inspected 6 percent of domestic food companies, and only 0.4 percent of imported food companies.  The rest go either uninspected by the FDA or inspected by Third Party Auditors.  The fishing industry is the most fraudulent and causes the most concerns.

Fishing Industry  A group of researchers from a group called Oceana found that three out of five retail outlets, including 100 percent of sushi bars in New York were selling mislabeled fish.  The United States gets most of its fish imported in from countries such as China, about 70 percent of it.  In a New York Times article, a reporter discovered that the fish farms in China the U.S. was buying from were contaminated and highly toxic, but still got sent to the markets anyways.

FDA Food Safety Modernization Act  January 4, 2011 Obama signed into effect a piece of legislation whose goal was to prevent food safety problems before they happened rather than reacting to them after by:  Making companies create preventative control plans  More frequent inspections, foreign and domestic  Making it easier to get unsafe products off the markets  Problem is that 2011 was almost just as bad as the year before.

Third Party Auditors  Third Party Auditors are private companies that are hired by food companies to come inspect their facilities.  Third Party auditors are one of the major issues surrounding the food industry as they are not regulated by the government.  Examples of Third Party Audit groups are AIB International Inc. and EHA Consulting Group.  Both claim to be the best in the business and backed by years of experience.

AIB International Inc.  AIB’s website states that they are backed by 60 years of experience in this field and that they operate in 120 countries.  The website also states a company that passes one of their inspections means that they are operating under the safest, cleanest conditions possible.  A farm in Colorado and the tragedy of a retired teacher tell a different story.

Jensen Farm and William Beach  Jensen Farm is a facility that was inspected by AIB International and was given a top rated certification.  William Beach was a retired teacher who sadly died due to the foodborne illness Lysteria from eating cantaloupe that had come from Jensen Farm.  Lysteria: a bacterium that can cause a blood infection and damage to the brain and spinal cord.  Beach was one of 33 people who died from Lysteria in Colorado because of Jensen Farm.

Pathogen Estimated number of deaths 90% Credible Interval % SalmonellaSalmonella, nontyphoidal 3780–1,01128 Toxoplasma gondii –48224 Listeria monocytogenes 2550–73319 Norovirus14984–23711 Campylobacter spp. 760–3326 Subtotal 88

EHA Consulting Group  Very similar to AIB, EHA states that they are backed up by more than 30 years of experience on their website.  Also stated is that their teams consists of trained:  Experienced epidemiologists  Sanitarians  Environmental Health Specialists, etc.  EHA made comments stating, “HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA, or equivalent, plus ten (10) years food processing experience (food plant experience in a responsible position related to food safety)…” were the qualifications to become a lead auditor.

Conclusion  There are many things wrong with the food industry today and the FDA is to blame as well as the Third Party Auditors such as AIB and EHA.  The Government is creating great legislation but is not following through with it and enforcing their laws.  The FDA has a problem with the workload and it could easily be fixed by them working together with Third Party Audit groups.  Creating bounds and legislation to make sure that both parties are working properly and efficiently to make sure that the food we consume every day is going to be safe.

The End

Works Cited  Armour, Stephanie. "Food Sickens Millions as Industry Paid Inspectors Find It Safe." Bloomberg Markets Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  "Background on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act." FDA. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  Bump, Phillip. "The Food Industry Is a Spectacular Failure." Grist. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  David Barboze. "In China, Farming Fish in Toxic Waters." New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr

Works Cited Continued  "Estimating Foodborne Illness: An Overview." CDC. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  "GMP Inspections." AIB International. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  "Third-Party Audits: EHA Consulting Group Releases Comments on Food Safety Consultant Auditors' Qualifications and Competencies." PRWeb. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  "Third Party Food Safety Audits & Inspections." EHA Consulting Group Inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr  Zeilinski, Sarah. "Seafood Sleuthing Pervasive Fish Fraud in New York City." NPR. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr