Major Issues in the United States Food Supply - Essay Example

 Major Issues in the United States Food Supply Major Issues in the United States Food Supply Food safety is vital to the safety of the food sector and health of American consumers. Food safety refers to the measures taken to ensure that food reaching American consumers is free from contamination and adulteration. However, there are several issues and challenges to the attainment of food safety, including regulating imported food products, cooperation between regulatory authorities, and the role of food processing and marketing companies. Institutions such as the CDC and the FDA are in place to perform their role in inspecting and regulating the food supply, including imported food products. Despite these measures, outbreaks do occur, requiring swift intervention by the regulating agencies to control the damage and take action against those responsible. This includes product recalls, issuing health warnings, and taking legal action against the persons guilty of negligence or intentional breach of safety. The following paragraphs highlight some of the main issues in ensuring food safety in the United States. The United States food supply has seen a number of high-profile outbreaks in the recent past. Such outbreaks result in disease, hospitalization and even deaths in some extreme cases. Ever since the threat of terrorism against American citizens, the government has become increasingly sensitive to issues of food safety and outbreaks, and such incidents are responded to swiftly. Certain examples can serve to illustrate the nature of food supply issues in the United States. In April 2012, there was an outbreak of Escherichia coli in 11 states. Around 29 people were infected and seven were hospitalized as a result of consuming infected clover sprouts (Deloitte, 3). At times, such outbreaks also lead to large-scale product recalls announced by government authorities. In November of 2012, peanut butter manufactured in a Minnesota factory was infected by a Salmonella strain. As a result, 42 people were infected and the FDA recalled the product from 20 states across the United States. The Regulation of Imported Food Products An important issue in the food supply safety of the United States is the role of national as well as international produce. The United States is a big importer of food products including meat, fish, vegetables, fruits, and so on. While there are food safety standards in force in the United States, other countires may be following standards and regulations that are less stringent. Therefore, the challenge for the United States is to strike a balance between meeting the demand for food products in the country while ensuring food safety in the supply chain. A case in point is the meat recall of 2012 where 2.5 million pounds of beef imported from Alberta in Canada had been infected by E. coli. Canada is still the largest food exporter to the United States, making up 19.8% of its total food imports in 2012 (Deloitte, 4). The European Union, China, Mexico and Brazil are other large food importers to the country. Smuggling of food into the United States is another major issue in food safety. Smuggled food enters undetected into the food supply, which prevents it from being inspected for pathogens and other contamination by the relevant agencies. Smuggled food is thus likely to be of a poorer quality and a great threat to the health of people in low income groups. An anti-smuggling strategy has been developed by the FDA and other agencies. The role of the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is essential in the prevention of food being smuggled across the border (FDA, 2013). Food is usually smuggled across the Mexico border because it allows the smugglers to avoid paying import taxes and sidestep inspection. However, this could result in undetected pathogens making their way into the United States food supply and posing a threat to the health and well-being of consumers. The Necessity of Inspection and Regulation To ensure food safety, it is necessary for adequate food regulation, inspection and compliance measures be implemented so that the quality of food entering the supply chain can be ascertained. Food supply issues such as adulteration or contamination can arise at any stage of the food supply including cultivation, processing or distribution. The role of authorities such as the Centre for Disease and Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Authority (FDA) is vital to the security of food supply. Food safety also depends on the presence of supportive legislation such as the recent Food Safety Modernization Act (FDMA). This Act facilitates cooperation between inspection committees organized at local, state and federal levels to make the food safety system more effective. It also gives the FDA authority to inspect food products being imported to the United States for compliance with safety standards and regulations (Deloitte, 5). An important distinction needs to be made between food safety and food defense. While food safety is mainly concerned with securing food against unintentional contamination, food defense is concerned with protecting food against intentional contamination. Thus, food safety targets agents and factors that are a part of the food supply chain and are not extraneous to it. For example, E. coli is a usual contaminant that occurs naturally in the beef supply chain. It is possible for beef to become infected by E. coli at any stage of the process. This makes the work of food safety departments relatively easier as the threats and risks to food safety are already known. If appropriate measures to ensure food safety are not taken, the risk of infection, hospitalization and product recalls increases (Deloitte, 4). Therefore, it is essential that the food industry as well as food safety regulatory bodies assume responsibility to inspect and monitor food products according to safety standards. The Responsibility of Food Companies The consumers’ right to information is also a major factor in ensuring the food safety of the food supply. Dietary supplements are regularly consumed by the American consumers. The FDA plays an active role in ascertaining that the manufacturers have taken all reasonable steps to inform the consumers about the ingredients used in the product. Dietary supplements may contain ingredients such as steroids or other strong chemicals that could adversely affect the health of consumers. Such contents should be displayed explicitly and prominently on the product packaging. This is necessary to ensure that consumers can make informed decisions. It is presently being considered that it should be made mandatory for the manufacturers of dietary supplements to inform the FDA prior to adding a new ingredient in their product (FDA, 2013). This would enable the FDA to inspect the new ingredient and determine its impact on the consumers’ health. The regulation of food processing companies is an important factor in ensuring food safety in the country. These companies prepare processed food and market it to the consumers. They must be registered with the FDA in order to carry out their operations legally. The FDA has the legal authority to revoke the registration of any food processing company that is negligent in ensuring food safety and in preventing unsafe food from reaching the consumer (FDA, 2013). This should motivate food processing companies to take a proactive approach in preventing food contamination in the first place. Similarly, food additives that have not yet been certified by the FDA must be approved by it before they can be marketed. Thus, companies need to conduct a safety study for the new ingredient to assess its impact on consumers’ health. The reports of the study should be submitted to the FDA’s authorization (Stanfield, 2010). The business practices of companies involved in processing and marketing of food products also affect food safety in the country. The criteria developed for the selection of food suppliers reflects how serious the company is about maintaining high standards of food safety. These requirements are also included in the purchase agreements and legally bind the supplier to specified safety standards. Food processing operations as well as distribution operations should be audited by external auditors to ensure compliance with relevant laws and standards. These companies also need to have mechanisms to prevent food safety from being compromised. When such incidents do occur, there should be adequate systems enabling the source of the contamination to be traced (Ades, 2012). Food safety is a matter of serious concern because of the health and economic costs of its being compromised. The corporate sector needs to collaborate with the regulatory bodies to develop, institute and implement adequate safety standards and policies. As globalization progresses, the United States is expected to increase its import of food products. The developing markets of China and Brazil being major exporters to the United States, it is imperative that policies be devised that can ensure that food suppliers have taken all necessary precautions in line with FDA standards. There is also a need for greater cooperation between food regulatory authorities and border forces to prevent uninspected and potentially harmful food from being smuggled into the country. Such measures would help to raise the levels of food safety in the country and reduce the incidents of outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli as have occurred in recent times. In their absence, the United States stands at the risk of being increasingly vulnerable to pathogenic outbreaks as well as bioterrorism. References Ades, G. (2013). The Food Safety Challenge of the Global Food Supply Chain. [Online]. Available from: http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/december-2011january-2012/the-food-safety-challenge-of-the-global-food-supply-chain/ [Accessed on 20 September 2013]. Deloitte. (2012). Food Safety: A Year in Review. [Online]. Available from: http://deloitte.wsj.com/riskandcompliance/files/2013/08/Food_safety_Review_2012.pdf. [Accessed on 20 September 2013]. FDA. (2013). FDA Meeting FSMA Safety Goals. [Online]. Available from: http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm261672.htm. [Accessed on 20 September 2013]. Stanfield, P. S. (2010). 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