WASHINGTON — In an effort to foster a constructive dialogue about food safety among academics, food industry executives, consumer advocates and government officials, Cooperating for Food Safety recently held a one-day symposium here at the Embassy Suites Convention Center Hotel featuring representatives from all of these groups.
Speakers included Danny Wegman, chief executive officer of Wegmans; Craig Wilson, vice president of food safety and quality assurance for Costco; Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the food safety program at the Center for Science in the Public Interest; and numerous executives from quick-service restaurants and suppliers such as Tyson, Cargill and McDonalds.
“What we're trying to do is to explore the idea of a consumer-led organization partnering with industry to see if there could be some benefit for both parties,” Nancy Donley, president of Safe Tables our Priority and CFS board chair, told SN.
This first symposium, “Best Practices for Improving Food Safety,” focused on safety measures developed through the collaborative efforts of the beef industry, and what members of other industries might learn from those measures, Donley said.
Bo Reagan, vice president of research and knowledge management for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, explained how the Beef Industry Food Safety Council helped those measures come about during a panel discussion at the Oct. 31 meeting.
“We have representatives from every sector of the supply chain — from cow-calf producer, feeder, backgrounder, packer, processor, retailer and grinder,” he explained in a telephone interview with SN. “We've opened all of our books and shared information openly [regarding] what we're doing in the food safety arena, and developed a set of best practices for each of those sectors. They're very effective methods for controlling pathogens in the supply chain. [The beef industry] doesn't view safety as a competitive advantage that one company should have over another.”
These best practices are constantly being improved upon, Reagan added, with any major event, such as a recall, leading BIFSCo to re-evaluate where problems may occur in the supply chain and update its recommendations to members.
Highlights of the meeting included discussions about better pre-harvest interventions to address animal-origin pathogens contaminating produce fields, and notification systems — such as one developed by Costco — that would call, email or text-message shoppers who have purchased a product that has been recalled.
“A recurring theme at the symposium was that ‘We can't do this alone anymore,’” said Donley. “Regulations alone can't drive food safety, industry groups can't drive food safety, and consumer [advocates] can't drive food safety. We have to get these groups to work together if we really want to be effective,” she said.
