Page 15 - Winter2010

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR FOOD SAFETy AND QUALITy

Kim Schuette, our San Diego Chapter Leader, attended this meeting of industry microbiologists and corporate food
safety experts in Redondo Beach, California, November 2-3.
The first speaker was food safety lawyer, William Marler, who called for more government surveillance, more co-
operation between government agencies, training and certification for food safety handlers, stiffer license requirements,
increased inspections, reform of government agencies and better food tracing technology to make industrial food safe for
consumers . . . in short more and more expensive bureaucracy to make industrial food safe. One interesting suggestion
was to require vaccination of all food handlers.
Vijay Juneja, PhD, summarized the major existing technologies for food preservations. These include reduction in
temperature, water activity and/or pH, removal of oxygen, modified atmosphere packaging and addition of preservatives.
Pasteurization and sterilization inactivate microorganisms by heating, and aseptic processing and packaging restrict access
of microorganisms to food. “New and emerging technologies” for food preservation include antimicrobials and microbial
products—this would include the ancient technique of lacto-preservation, which lowers pH. Physical food preservation
technologies include irradiation, high hydrostatic pressure, electrical methods and ultrasound. . . . which leads to the
question, if ultrasound can preserve our food, what does it do to people when used as a diagnostic technique or to the
fetus when used to determine the condition and sex before birth?
William Hallman, PhD, a psychologist from Rutger’s Department of Human Ecology, summed up the corporate at-
titude towards consumers who want local, organic, natural, safe, exotic, blemish-free food year round with two words:
“Good luck.” He bemoaned the “romantic” interest in agriculture versus the reality of CAFOs—which, he said, “make
interesting pictures for the media”—and industrial processing.
One speaker singled out “Prepared-But-Not-Ready-To-Eat Foods (NRTE)” such as potpies as especially dangerous
because these foods are often microwaved and not thoroughly cooked. “Thermal imaging has shown great variability in
microwave heating,” he said, “and we have to assume the consumer is not going to do the right thing.”
Dong-Hyun Kiang, Associate Professor, Washington State University, noted that FDA is looking into using UV ra-
diation for “cleaning pasteurized milk.” He then made a telling admission: “A concern is that this may become a sole
method.” In other words, small farmers may use the low-cost, gentle UV radiation to treat milk and then sell it directly
to the public. Interesting that the industry recognizes the fact that pasteurized milk is not always clean.
Stan Bailey, a senior research scientist for the USDA served as an expert consultant to the Foreign Agricultural Or-
ganization of the UN, and technical expert to the USDA negotiating team that secured agreements with Russia which
led to $350 million a year in exports by the US poultry industry. According to Bailey, the precipitous drop in consumer
confidence over the last few years is actually due to the government doing its job in detecting food contamination and
outbreaks. “The challenge is in educating the public as to the good job being done by the FDA.”
Bailey noted the ubiquitous presence of microorganisms. Microbes outnumber humans by many orders of magnitude.
Food-borne illnesses cost the industry between three and five billion dollars annually. He noted the challenges of Listeria
monocytogenes, which he said was a processing plant problem, not animal production problem. Globally, campylobacter
is most problematic (primarily in poultry). He called for increased environmental testing, especially for listeria, due to
increased presence on dry foods like peanuts and dried fruit. “Interventions
on animal products have to be made at farm level through vaccines and other
hygiene methods.” Bailey is firmly in the commodity agriculture camp so
said nothing about the obvious solution—getting animals back on pasture.
Erdozn Ceylan, Director of Research at Silliker, a network of accred-
ited food testing and consulting laboratories, spoke with approval about
irradiation, noting, “The biggest hurdle is consumer acceptance; [consumers]
think they will get cancer” if they eat irradiated food. Ceylan noted that it is
not necessary to disclose irradiation if done prior to the finished product,
that it can be an “in-process” step. “This is the best solution,” said Ceylan.
Ceylan noted the negative effects of various chemicals proposed to kill
microorganisms on food.
Bottom line is that the industry is grappling with how to ensure the
safety of industrial food without actually ruining it, while denigrating the
natural solution—small scale production, artisan processing and old fash-
ioned home cooking. Thank you to Kim Schuette for sitting quietly through
the meeting and taking excellent notes.

WINTER 2010 Wise Traditions 15

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