The Food Quality Protection Act - Annotated Bibliography Example

Rigoberto Baez Carter Humphery 20 November 2009 Annotated Bibliography Quality Control U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) Background”. Pesticides: Regulating Pesticides. Web. This is the law that covers safety regulations on use of pesticides for food production. It became effective on August 3, 1996, and was heavily supported by a broad coalition of environmental, public health, agricultural, industry group and the members of the Congress. The FPQA amended previous legislations and has set a “more consistent, protective regulatory scheme, based on sound science”. Particularly, FPQA adopts single health-based standards for all pesticides in all foods. The law provides special protection for infants and children; incentives for the American farmers to develop and maintain effective crop protection measures; the need for periodic evaluation of pesticide registration and tolerance for collection of scientific data and expediting approval of pesticides application. This law is under review for further refinements U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Accomplishments under the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA)” August 3, 2006 -- 10th Anniversary of the Food Quality Protection Act. Pesticides: Regulating Pesticides. Web. This article presents the accomplishments of the Food Quality Protection Act, 10 years after it was implemented. This is only a narrative presentation but lacks data on numbers. The report said that FPQA has accomplished its task of ensuring that all pesticides used on food in the U.S. meet safety standards. EPA, in this report, has achieved to get the cooperation of the private sector partners to provide the world with abundant supply of healthy food products that met the American quality food standards. EPA hopes that with the tools provided to the agency by the law, they will continue to become a reliable food supplier in the world. Th. Blaha “The Importance of Quality Assurance and Food Safety in Modern Food Production Systems”. University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Clinical and Population Sciences. Web. In the introductory of this topic, Th. Blaha, points to the food=borne disease and deaths caused by unsafe meat food products. He traced this to the lack of quality control system on meat inspection and proper hygiene; although author admitted that safety controls are much more advanced now than in previous years. Author said that consumers now are more health conscious as they demand for economical, healthy, tasty and safe food. Consumer behavior now shows respect towards animal welfare and to safety of the environment as well as quality oriented food that gives nutrients. In this report, the role of information and technology is enhanced to assist livestock producer to meet demand for quality meat products. To the author, quality assurance come first and is more important because it lessens the future cost of damage. To do this, a management system should be developed to gather data, processed and analyzed to deal with any problems on animal production. He said that once information system is set in place, it will be easy to deal with origin of the disease of the animal. A healthy and safe livestock production, according to author is one way to be competitive in the supply food chain. FAO. “The importance of food quality and safety for developing countries”. Web. FAO gives a complex definition to food as to safety and quality. Food safety is the absence of contaminants and adulterants coming from toxins or any other substances that makes the food harmful to health, while quality is referred to as to its nutritional values, appearance such as taste, texture, and functional properties. FAO, in this report estimated the world population to reach 7.6 billion in 2020. This figure is a challenge to the food supply production that will have to intensify agriculture and livestock production, introduction of new technologies and biotechnologies to be able to produce supply. FAO posed an assumption that some of these measures may cause potential problems for food safety and for that, necessary studies should be done along this line. A portion of this report (par. 19) stated a contradiction on use of pesticides, saying that “There is no evidence that evaluated food additives or pesticides used in accordance with international recommendations have been the cause of any harm to humans”, but reasoned that “inappropriate use of that chemicals can cause health problems”. FAO cited that inappropriate use of controlled substances like lead, mercury, cadmium and adulteration of other mixes lead to poison and food-borne diseases. FAO said the economic losses to agriculture and animal production that is spoiled and destroyed due to contamination is hard to estimate as it has wide effect on production, employment and income. Some causes of deterioration of quality exist in the supply chain. FAO reported the unthinkable impact to consumers of the unscrupulous ways of middlemen such as mislabeling of product, adulteration and reduction of food nutrient.Xinhua. “China vows to ensure food safety as new law takes effect”. China Daily. 2009. Web. This news report headlines the new food safety law that takes effect this year in China. With the enforcement of this new law, Chinese authorities hopes food scandals in the country will not be repeated. China’s food scandals were major news worldwide. Xinhua said that the Chinese authorities pledged to intensify monitoring and law enforcement in order to improve the industry’s reputation and regain consumer’s confidence. The new system is going to have an improved food safety monitoring network, a recall system for substandard products and harsh punishment for offenders. World Food Program. “Food Safety and hygiene”. Food Quality Control. Web. World Food Program (WFP) describes that food quality control is not only ensuring the safety of the product, but control should also make certain that food supplies are available in adequate amounts, at affordable price, of good quality, and has nutritional value for all age group of population. WFP specifies that food quality control covers all phases of production, from processing and storage, to distribution and consumption. WFP said that it is the duty of the producers and suppliers to protect the health of consumers from risks to maintain good quality of the product. Risks to products can be controlled by proper knowledge and application; and assistance and studies of WHP are available. Some of the risks identified are “contamination by micro-organisms, toxins, foreign matters, chemical contaminants, and excess of moisture content, a degradation of the nutritional value, or a pest infestation” President Bill Clinton and Vice President Algarve. “Reinventing Food Regulations”. Performance Review. 1996. Web. The report of the US top officials showed the need to review the food safety law of the Fed system since it has been in existence for almost a century. It has acknowledged that changes have to be made to adapt to the global system and the changing needs of the American consumers and to correct the existing laws. The report said that the defect of the 1997 system is that problem is detected after it has occurred. For instance, food borne illnesses caused by “harmful bacteria and other pathogenic micro-organisms found in meat, poultry, sea foods and dairy products are significant problems of the government” The top officials admitted, in the report, the call for a change of the system of food safety control, and has adopted modification in food safety policy. A common approach to food safety was adopted and incorporated into the government program thru the setting up of a science based system of food safety controls, known as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points. (HACCP). HACCP will be implemented by each company and must use the same quality control standards. Romano Donato, Cavicchi Alessio, Rocchi Bernadette and Gianluca Stefani. “Costs and Benefits of Compliance for HACCP Regulation in the Italian Meat and Dairy Sector.” Web. Authors viewed the cost and benefit in complying with the HACCP requirement. HACCP is a requirement entry to the U.S food market. Often this is done thru voluntary quality systems through the ISO 9002, BRC Standards and product certifications. Costs and benefits have been analyzed by the authors to see the economic impact of HACCP compliance. Study categorized benefits and costs to firms, consumers and public bodies. Firms tend to benefit in form of higher revenues, gains in efficiency, and “avoided costs” for faulty products. Consumers are benefited thru avoidance of food-borne illness; while the government benefits from savings on medical care and social security. The accompanying costs to firms are prevention and appraisal; monitoring of compliance by private sector groups and cost of enforcement by the government. Economic Research Services. “Food Safety Technologies and HACCP Compliance Survey”. USDA. Web. This report shows results of two surveys conducted in 2001 about food safety technologies and impact of HACCP compliance. First survey was conducted among 865 meat slaughter and processors and the second was to 135 poultry slaughter and processors. First survey was about the types and amounts of food safety investments made by meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants. Results showed evidence of market forces working in union with the regulations of food safety. ERS reported that U.S. plants spent $380 million annually, and $570 million in long term investments from 1996 through 2000 to comply with HACCP requirements. Additional amount of $360 million was also spent by these plants on food and investments which are not covered by the rule. Sielco System. “Quality control system in food industry”. Web. This article is about one of the quality control systems that could be used by plants in monitoring quality control. It says that is based on a Winlog Pro software SCADA platform that has been used by many sectors of food industry. This system, according to article, could be used as one of the voluntary quality control systems to comply with HACP rule. The system, as described, has a continuing monitoring of all significant variables of the process and generates quality control reports with graphical trends that certifies compliance of the production lot; the system also certifies that the storage process doesn’t affect the quality of stored product and doesn’t cause modification of the original characteristics.” Once any abnormality is detected, the system immediately signals a local alarm to call attention. Read More