Recent reports of contaminated spinach, lettuce, peanut butter and other foods have been so numerous that they are now common place. The general public has become accustom to hearing about another food safety contamination crisis on the evening news.
The problem has become so critical that on July 18th, President Bush signed an Executive Order creating a special food safety task force. The task force to be headed by Mike Leavitt, Secretary of HHS, has been given 60 days to develop a strategy for ensuring that U.S. food safety regulations are adequately protecting the American public.
In signing the Food Safety Executive Order the President said: "Food safety and consumer safety is a serious issue. We take it seriously and we spend a lot of time on it in this administration. It's important for the American people to know their government is on top of the situation and constantly reviewing procedures and practices".
During Congressional testimony the day before, Andrew von Eschenbach, head of the FDA, informed Congress that less than 1% of food imports are being inspected. While saying that the agency was in need of a “painful” overhaul, Eschenbach went to to described agency plans for closing more than one half of its current food safety laboratories.
The Presidential Food Safety Task force and overhauling the FDA will have little impact on what goes on behind the kitchen door at your favorite restaurant. A number of studies have indicated that 50 % or more of food handlers fail to wash their hands after using the restroom or handling contaminated raw foods. In many cases the 50% mark would be a big improvement.
Your local health inspector, who is on the front-line in the food safety battle, can't be in every facility every day. At one time, there was no requirement for a food service manager to be trained in food safety. Today, most states require food managers to complete a training course and to be certified in food safety management.
It's really up to the food service manager just what gets done and what doesn't get done. When a manager fails to monitor food safety, any number of bad bugs will have an opportunity to assault you later on. If you don't want to get mugged or assaulted the next time you dine out, let the manager on duty know you care about food safety and appreciate his efforts behind the kitchen door.
