December 1, 2000

Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, in a speech Thursday to the Joint Institute for Food Safety Research, said the structural reform of USDA's food safety mission in 1994 was followed by "major substantive reforms" that included the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system for meat and poultry inspection that "revolutionized" those industries.

"One of the most significant steps came in 1994 when, as part of a massive reorganization effort, an independent food safety mission area was established here at USDA," Glickman said in a speech designed to highlight USDA accomplishments under his leadership. "This was about more than moving around a few boxes on the organizational chart. It not only elevated the status of food safety, clearly establishing public health as a top priority; it also separated food safety responsibilities from our marketing arm, thus eliminating even the appearance of conflict of interest."

He added, "It's not an exaggeration to say that HACCP has revolutionized meat and poultry inspection, directly targeting deadly pathogens that can't be caught with the naked eye. By complementing our inspectors' excellent work with state-of-the-art science, we have improved what, frankly, was an archaic system...a system that had barely changed since Upton Sinclair's exposé first compelled the federal government to regulate meat-packing plants almost a hundred years ago."

Glickman called HACCP "an unqualified success." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited it as a factor in the decline of food-borne illnesses, he added. Data show consistent declines in Salmonella contamination for all major meat products among plants that have adopted HACCP. Most recently, USDA reported that Salmonella has been reduced by more than half on chicken carcasses and by one-third on ground beef.

"It's important to note that we couldn't have built this record without the partnership of industry. Industry understands that, ultimately, their marketability and profitability depend on the safety of their product. With the exception of an uncooperative few, I've been impressed with the way the private sector has risen to the HACCP challenge," he continued.

"But we also recognized that HACCP alone isn't enough. We understood the need for clear, measurable, objective performance standards that industry must meet. Without some kind of benchmark or baseline, we would have no way of measuring food safety progress; we would be relying on little more than an industry honor code."

He also called on Congress to "provide the authorities that will put a little more teeth into USDA's enforcement efforts. For example, we need mandatory recall and notification authority. And to ensure that there's some accountability in the system, we also need the authority to impose civil penalties against firms that violate federal food safety rules."

Food safety challenges never end, Glickman added, "and many of them cry out for the expertise of the research community. In the coming years, we'll need a laser-like focus on the immensely complicated issue of antibiotic resistance. We'll have to work hard to ensure that BSE stays out of the United States. We'll need more research to combat Campylobacter in poultry. And we must be on the alert for emerging zoonotic diseases, an area where USDA should play a key role given its experience with animal research."