Food Safety Requires Public-Private Partnership

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The National Pork Producers Council told a Congressional panel Thursday that to be effective, the nation’s food-safety system must have adequate funding and personnel, food-safety policies and procedures based on sound science and a partnership between federal food-safety agencies and food producers.

Jill Appell, a pork producer from Altona, Illinois and past NPPC president, pledged that the U.S. pork industry will continue to adopt and adapt practices and programs that improve the safety of our nation’s food supply. But America’s food producers need the federal government to be a partner in this effort.

Appell noted that, for the most part, federal food-safety agencies, particularly the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service, do a good job. But there is room for improvement. Among her recommendations, Appell urged lawmakers to: establish food safety objectives linked to public health outcomes rather than arbitrary targets; and improve communication about food safety issues among state and federal public health officials and the food industry.