The lesson I learned next, however, was something that has been one of the most painful elements of the tragedy of my son’s death that I have carried for the last two decades. Work with the USDA relating to educating consumers was thwarted by the efforts of the industry and the dual responsibilities of the USDA. Some of the department’s administrators and assistants expressed concern over the pressures associated with the labels and with public awareness in general from within the industry, as some meat groups feared that an educated public would stop buying their product. Even the USDA was apprehensive of giving the consumer too much information as the consumer may not only be motivated to stop old behaviors associated with the products, but be motivated to discontinue purchasing the product as well. This highlights an inherent conflict of interest for the USDA, for its charge is not only to regulate the quality of meat, but also to promote the sale and use.
According to a spokesperson for the American Meat Institute, “Warning labels really frighten the public, if consumers follow safe handling procedures, there’s no need to scare people about what is really a very wholesome and nutritious product.” This description of the clean product may be very easy for the general public to believe, but what if a product is contaminated? In its 1990 FSIS fact bulletin, the USDA described contaminated meat and poultry as causing “thousands of individual cases, hundreds of outbreaks, and several deaths each year.” The USDA went on to report “6.5 – 8.1 million Americans may actually suffer [foodborne illness] symptoms each year.” Mind you, this statement was made in 1990—four years before the USDA declared E. coli as an adulterant and well before reporting of illnesses from many food sources, let alone the systems to report, record, and monitor were in place.
Perhaps by placing a weak message on the labels, the USDA was at least able to mandate that some form of food safe handling instructions be placed on every package of meat and poultry sold in the U.S. for the last 20 years. But requiring labels and enforcing their use is two different things. I have visited plenty of grocery stores with their own butcher and packaging stations in which labels were not used on the products.
Detwiler is a graduate lecturer on the economic and social aspects of food at Northeastern University. In the 1990s, he worked with USDA in the early days of their Pathogen Reduction Program to gain the federal regulation of food safe handling labels on meat. He holds an FDA certification as a food science educator and served two terms as a USDA regulatory policy advisor on the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection. Detwiler continues to consult about the history of food safety legislation and can be reached at [email protected].
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