HACCP Is Under Fire From Former Consumer Safety Inspector (Part One Of Two)

By Laurel Maloy, contributing writer, Food Online

Put into effect in 1998, HACCP is putting increased responsibility for food safety on companies and lessening the role government authority plays to prevent unsafe food from reaching consumer tables

Alvin Sewell, a former Consumer Safety Inspector for beef, pork, and poultry plants, as well as a U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) employee for 18 years, writes, “The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) Based Models Project has been functioning in pilot plants for more than 13 years. But, during that time, FSIS has failed to effectively demonstrate the viability of the pilot program through objective and statistically sound measures.”

FSIS has been monitoring this program in a number of pilot plants for more than a decade. HACCP Based Models Project (HIMP) is meant to reduce the amount of contaminated food reaching consumers’ tables. However, the performance of HIMP has been criticized in numerous reports by consumer safety groups, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO).  According to Sewell, the GAO reported its concerns in December of 2001 and again in August, 2013 reiterating many of the original problems with the system in the second report. This means that the same problems have continued to occur in those plants selected as ‘pilot’ plants for at least 12 years. Furthermore, these plants continue to ship products to consumers without having to identify the fact that they are an experimental processing plant. This leads consumers to believe the products they are serving their families has been produced under proven inspection methods.

And yet Sewell cites a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report, No Progress in Salmonella During Past 15 Years, where CDC Director, Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. states that more than 1 million people in the U.S. contract Salmonella each year. He adds that Salmonella is responsible for about half of the hospitalizations and deaths among the nine foodborne illnesses the CDC tracks.

In the same report, Elisabeth Hagen, M.D., Under Secretary for Food Safety at the USDA, says, “Far too many people still get sick from the food they eat, so we have more to do. That is why we are looking at all options, from farm to table, in order to make food safer and prevent illnesses from E. coli, Salmonella, and other harmful pathogens.

In part two of this news feature, proposals submitted to FSIS for redesigning the meat processing plant inspection system will be discussed. The U.S. Government Meat Inspector’s Union and Sewell contributed jointly, and though it was adopted by FSIS, was significantly modified. It will also discuss how the project was implemented and the final result of the implementation — the entire reason this story has come to light.