[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16120]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                              FOOD SAFETY

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 4, 2002

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, food safety is serious business, and 
American consumers pay a high price for wholesome, pure food. The 
expense soars when the system fails, especially if failure results in 
illness, or worse, someone's death. Everyone pays mightily to maintain 
America's standing as the world's safest place to eat.
  Just behind taxes and government regulation, food-safety precautions 
account for the biggest fixed cost of commercial food production. All 
of these costs pass through to consumers at the grocer's check stand. 
The higher prices also rob farmers and ranchers of hard-earned income, 
but food safety remains their chief objective, too.
  No one profits from bad food, except for lawyers. In fact, Colorado's 
economy depends on safe agriculture products, and confident, healthy 
consumers. That's why we invest billions toward achieving both.
  The issue of improved food safety has once again found itself on the 
political front burner following the recent discovery of a contaminated 
batch of hamburger that slipped through the ConAgra Beef plant in 
Greeley. The incident caused the illness of at least 30 people.
  The culprit in this case is E.coli 0157:H7. It can be lethal, though 
it wasn't this time. The bacterium is found in the intestines of most 
animals, including humans.
  Cow feces probably came in contact with ``trim'' meat. These cuts 
were likely run through a grinder, shipped to a processor, blended with 
product from other slaughterhouses, sold at grocery stores, and 
prepared on a few dozen household countertops. Perfect nutrients and 
lots of surface area make ground beef an optimal growing medium for 
E.coli.
  Hundreds of other pathogens could have initiated this latest round of 
debate. The Centers for Disease Control has identified more than 250 
different food borne diseases that have caused an estimated 76 million 
illnesses in the United States resulting in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 
hospitalizations. In virtually any other country the risk is worse, 
however poorly documented.
  Impurities are inherent with all food consumption, especially 
perishable ones like meat, fish and poultry. A food-science expert at 
Colorado State University told me hamburger recalls average one per 
week across the country this time of year when the environmental 
conditions are most favorable to E.coli. This escapes the press for 
some reason.
  Routinely, recalls are initiated immediately after a pathogen is 
confirmed, allowing producers to capture and gain control of the 
recalled product before it reaches consumers. ConAgra's recall was 
anything but typical. It came too late because federal inspectors 
waited nearly two weeks to alert the company that E.coli had been 
detected.
  Once notified, ConAgra promptly voluntarily recalled all the 
contaminated beef, but the delay had already added millions to the 
company's cost of doing so, and sickened many. After admitting its 
delay was a mistake, the federal government then recommended to ConAgra 
an additional recall of millions of pounds of meat it had not tested at 
all.
  The government's passive-aggressive behavior has aggravated 
consumers, along with beef producers who are now unsure about the U.S. 
Department of Agriculture's intentions, the status of recall protocols, 
and the future of red-meat production.
  These ambiguities are far from trivial. The regulatory authority of 
the USDA is considerable. Running afoul of the massive bureaucracy 
exposes a meat packer to criminal prosecution, product seizure, 
retention, detention, and perhaps most effective of all, publicity.
  Far more harsh and unforgiving than the toughest government sanction, 
the marketplace brutally punishes any business that puts contaminated 
product before a consumer. That's as it should be, and it works.
  It was the market, for example, that handed a virtual corporate death 
sentence in 1997 to Nebraska-based Hudson Foods. Contamination prompted 
the company to issue the nation's largest recall of ground beef--25 
million pounds. A few months later, the company was closed.
  In our earnest quest to make food safer, there are a few things to 
keep in mind.
  First, U.S. beef was, is, and will always be safe to eat. The quality 
gets better every day. Colorado ranchers lead the nation in the science 
of livestock production providing quality products that satisfy the 
high expectations of domestic and foreign consumers.
  Second, producers rely on the USDA as much as consumers do. It's an 
important agency, and we all want to see it succeed. Anyone who cares 
about food safety should be prepared to help make USDA inspections a 
higher federal budget priority. The same goes for state inspectors.
  The agency should be driven by sound science, not politics. Its Food 
Safety Inspection Service should be given the resources and precise 
guidelines to upgrade its testing so inspectors can more quickly 
pinpoint the sources of pathogens and react with consistency. They need 
more money for training, too.
  Third, the industry should initiate implementation of pathogen-
killing procedures.
  Several well-researched measures are proven effective such as live-
cattle management at feedlots, washing carcasses with steam or acidic 
sodium chlorite, and irradiation. America's top agriculture colleges, 
including CSU, have studied this to death. If the industry won't lead 
on this, government should.
  Fourth, consumers are ultimately responsible for food safety. No 
amount of regulation and inspection will help anyone who ignores 
packaging dates, improperly handles meat, eats it raw, or worse, feeds 
undercooked product to their kids.
  Fifth, there is no such thing as a ``zero risk'' standard for any 
perishable food.
  This is an impossible goal, a hoax perpetrated by four principle 
groups of people--those who work for the government, plaintiffs' 
lawyers, developers who want to buy their neighbors' ranches and 
vegetarians offended by others who enjoy a good steak. There will never 
be a regulatory body large enough to inspect every cut of beef, stalk 
every distributor or police every kitchen.
  Finally, if God didn't intend for us to eat animals, He wouldn't have 
made them out of meat. He also made us smart enough to figure out how 
to eat them both cheaply and safely.

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