In about three hours, as I blissfully sleep, U.S. ag-types will take to the PR circuit to advance a new program for poultry inspection.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. would increase oversight of poultry processors’ sanitary practices and contamination controls instead of visually checking each chicken and turkey for scabs and sores under a plan that would save the industry $250 million a year.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said the proposal, to be presented today, may prevent 5,200 foodborne illnesses a year by modernizing and making the system more efficient by taking the emphasis off visual imperfections that can harm poultry sales rather than improve safety.

“It’s obviously about safer food and fewer foodborne illnesses,” Vilsack said in an interview. “It’s also about reducing the cost of production in an effective way without redundancy or compromising safety.”

The U.S. would save as much as $40 million a year within two or three years, in part through the elimination of inspection jobs, Vilsack said. Last week, the secretary announced a reorganization of his agency that would lower spending by about $150 million a year, or 1 percent of the department’s budget. The public will have 90 days to comment on the proposal.

The USDA would continue to inspect poultry carcasses at the end of the production line before they are chilled and will be on site at all times, Vilsack said. Slaughter operators have the option of requesting the U.S. continue visual inspections for blemishes, according to the proposed regulation.

Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), in an e-mail. Tyson, based in Springdale, Arkansas and the largest U.S. chicken producer by volume, participated in the pilot program testing the new inspection rules.

“This modified system reduces redundancies between company and USDA inspection efforts and gives USDA’s staff more flexibility to focus on other things that verify the effectiveness of our food safety activities,” said Mickelson, adding that Tyson has not yet seen the proposed regulation.

The pilot program with 25 poultry processors conducted over more than a decade found no increased risk of injuries to workers from the faster production line and showed the effort to be successful, said Elisabeth Hagen, undersecretary for food safety at the USDA, in an interview.

Inspectors began visually inspecting poultry for physical defects in 1906, before it was possible to detect microbial contamination that can’t be seen and poses a hazard, he said.

There were 16 multistate outbreaks of foodborne illnesses in the U.S. in 2011, with five of them involving fresh produce, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s annual year in review.

Coral Beach of The Packer reports fresh produce involved were: romaine lettuce, cantaloupes (two outbreaks), whole papayas and alfalfa and spicy sprouts. Two outbreaks were related to nuts, one involving Turkish pine nuts and the other involving hazelnuts. Lists for recent years are on the CDC’s website.

According to the CDC, 2011 was the most active year in recent history for foodborne illness outbreaks that crossed statelines. In 2010 there were 12, four of them involving fresh produce: alfalfa sprouts (two outbreaks) and shredded romaine lettuce. The other case involved an unnamed Mexican fast food restaurant chain that served a variety of items, including several fresh produce commodities.

“Shifting to outcomes-based and transparent regulations aims to establish clear expectations regarding risk management outcomes to be achieved.”

That is how government-types captured the mindset of regulators in a discussion paper released in Dec. 2011 in advance of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s most extensive regulatory review in its 14-year history.

Barry Wilson of The Western Producer reports CFIA is promising more modern, industry-friendly rules, switching the emphasis from setting objectives and policing compliance to emphasizing prevention and allowing industry to reach the objectives without excessive regulatory direction. 


“Modernized regulatory frameworks will improve consistency and reduce complexity in regulation and will enhance the ability of the CFIA and regulated parties to contribute to the safety of the food supply and the protection of the animal and plant resource bases.”

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Brian Evans, Canada’s chief food safety officer and chief veterinarian, said change is necessary and the review is part of a government-wide demand for smarter regulations.

The underlying theme of the system will remain, “thou shalt not sell unsafe food.”

Much better.

At what point do food service staff also have to play epidemiologist?

Scott James of The Bay Citizen writes that San Francisco’s Italian eatery Delfina has been considered one of the Bay Area’s best restaurants for more than a decade; Craig Stoll, its co-owner and chef, won a coveted James Beard award in 2008.

But in December, its many accolades could not protect Delfina from an unusual incident. On a night the restaurant was booked solely for a private party, about two dozen patrons were sickened by food poisoning.

The staff determined what each victim ate, and since a vegetarian was among those sickened, oysters, beef tartar and other foods were eliminated as the sources of illness.

“We narrowed things down to the most common denominator,” Stoll said. Their conclusion: Tainted produce, most likely salad greens.

The restaurant contacted its suppliers, but no alert went out to the public, and there was no government investigation. The San Francisco Department of Public Health had not heard of the incident until contacted by The Bay Citizen.

In what appears to be a gap in the food supply safety net, there is no requirement for restaurants to report when their diners are affected by foodborne illnesses even when large numbers of people get sick.

“They are not obligated to report it,” said Richard Lee, director of environmental health regulatory programs for the city.

Mandatory reporting is not required at the state level either, according to the California Department of Public Health. Under both state and local laws, reporting is required only when restaurant workers become sick.

Rajiv Bhatia, the city’s director of environmental health, said the Delfina incident was now under investigation, but added that it was highly unusual for health officials to be unaware of a case involving so many diners.

He suggested a need for stricter rules. “I believe that reporting of potential outbreaks should be mandatory for supermarkets, restaurants, schools and workplace cafeterias, even though this is not a requirement under current law,” he said.

At Delfina, which consistently achieves high scores on health inspections, Stoll said there had not been an illness before or since that night, but he wants the mystery solved.