Food Safety: An Interview With Joseph A. Levitt : Part 2

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Page 2 of 4)

Q: Despite persistent concerns about bioengineered crops, they are spreading so rapidly that it has become nearly impossible for consumers to avoid them. What steps is the FDA taking to ensure that bioengineered foods and animal feeds are as safe as their conventional counterparts?

A: The issue of bioengineered foods certainly has captured the public's attention over the last couple of years. In fact, there was so much interest that the FDA decided to hold three public meetings around the country on this issue. I chaired one of those meetings and we got a lot of feedback from them. I think the bottom line is that the public wants to make sure that the government is looking out for them and scrutinizing these products to ensure their safety. That's a legitimate issue. What we've done at the FDA is gone back and looked at our processes in light of that feedback.

In doing so, we decided to make changes that would further strengthen our program. Earlier this year, we proposed stronger regulations for food derived from biotechnology that would do two basic things: First, these regulations would require that all new foods derived from biotechnology be reviewed by the FDA before they go on the market. While this has been occurring on a voluntary basis, we want to be sure that the public has confidence in knowing that this will be a legal requirement, and that the FDA will ensure that any bioengineered foods are as safe as their conventional counterparts. Second, we proposed to increase the openness or transparency of the process so that consumers would have more access to what products we are reviewing, what safety data has been submitted on these products, what decisions we are making, and the reasons behind the decisions. That proposal has had a public comment period, and we are now evaluating those comments and developing final regulations. I believe that stronger regulations for bioengineered foods will ensure that consumers have continued confidence in the safety of the U.S. food supply.

Q: The FDA recently issued a health alert suggesting that pregnant women and women of childbearing age avoid four species of fish — swordfish, king mackerel, shark and tilefish — because of potential methylmercury contamination. Fish and seafood are an important part of a healthy diet. What steps have been taken by the FDA to ensure seafood is safe to eat?

A: The first prevention program put into place by the FDA was aimed at seafood safety. It's called Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point or HACCP (hé-sip). HACCP focuses on identifying and preventing hazards that could cause foodborne illness rather than relying simply on spot-checks of manufacturing processes or end-product testing. What this means is that seafood processors need to evaluate their systems and see where the real sources of contamination are. They should ask themselves: What are the potential hazards? Where are the "critical points" that need controls to limit those hazards? Then they must put in place a monitoring program to ensure that the hazards are, in fact, being properly controlled.

HACCP is the cornerstone of our science-based, modern food safety system. It actually is based on a system developed for NASA to ensure safe food for astronauts. After the FDA put in place HACCP for seafood, the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented a HACCP program for meat and poultry. And the FDA is putting HACCP in place next year for juice products. So this really is the cornerstone of a modern prevention system. That's the overview.

Now, what have we done recently? What we have found is, as with any program, it's good to start looking at the big picture — but then you've got to start homing in on where the biggest problems are. This year we issued what we called a "mid-course correction" to our seafood HACCP program. We wanted to be sure we were devoting our time to those seafood products that potentially — and I emphasize potentially — could create the most serious health problems for consumers. Those are seafood products that could contain either harmful bacteria or histamines that cause allergic-type reactions. We want to be sure we inspect processors of the "high risk" products more intensely and make sure they have adequate HACCP systems in place.

We also are focusing on areas where particular groups of consumers may be vulnerable. Along these lines we issued an alert this year for pregnant women and women of childbearing age who may become pregnant to avoid four kinds of seafood: shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. Those are the fish with the highest levels of methylmercury, a naturally occurring marine toxin. A steady diet that contains foods with high levels of methylmercury could have harmful effects on an unborn child. We're taking a "better safe than sorry" approach here. And we've tried to get a strong warning out to women who are pregnant, and to women of childbearing age who may become pregnant, to avoid these kinds of fish to protect their unborn children.

Methymercury is a good example of how the breadth of the FDA's food safety program is expanding. While our food safety program over the last several years has focused on foodborne illness associated with bacteria, we are expanding the program to address chemical, environmental and physical hazards, as well. Typically, these hazards tend to be of a more chronic nature than bacterial hazards, but they are still very important.

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.