Safer meat requires reducing risks where food animals are raised

Wider use of evidence-based food safety interventions on farms and feedlots would significantly reduce the risk of people getting sick from contaminated meat and poultry, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The report, “Food Safety from Farm to Fork,” examines potential means to prevent foodborne illnesses by investing in strategies to control Salmonella, E. coli, and other pathogens that live in and around food animals. Cattle, poultry, and swine often harbor these microorganisms before they reach the slaughterhouse gate, where the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s (USDA) oversight authority starts.

Contaminated meat and poultry products are responsible for an estimated 2 million illnesses in the United States each year. The report argues that a variety of pre-harvest interventions—from ensuring that water and feed are clean to administering vaccines and other preventive treatments—can significantly reduce the risk that bacteria harmful to humans will infect food animals.

The report identifies successful pre-harvest interventions, including several already used by some producers in the United States and other countries, and highlights those that have been shown to reduce the risk of illness associated with contaminated meat and poultry. To develop and increase adoption of effective pathogen control strategies, the report makes the following recommendations:

1. Government agencies should fund research; support field trials on pre-harvest interventions; designate resources to evaluate how to best combine multiple existing interventions; and consider incentives to spur additional research into pre-harvest food safety efforts.
2. Regulatory agencies should provide incentives for the implementation of pre-harvest food safety interventions; consider ways to synthesize data and prioritize where and when interventions should be applied; improve the regulatory approval process; and increase collaboration and communication among all stakeholders.
3. Industry should consider individual pre-harvest interventions within the larger context of managing the health of the herd or flock and implement adequate controls to protect animal health and keep pathogens out.
4. All stakeholders should develop information technology infrastructure and capacity to encourage sharing of efficacy and safety data among industry, academia, governmental researchers, and regulatory agencies, and keep all parties apprised of up-to-date research and information.

Report