On Monday, the Produce Safety Project (PSP), an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, released the latest analysis of the public health system’s response to the last summer’s Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The report, Breakdown: Lessons to Be Learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak, concludes that the outbreak exposed weaknesses in the public health system and that certain areas of the system are in critical need of reform. In particular, the report focuses on food safety policy, the public health system’s organization, capacity and effectiveness in the outbreak response, and risk communications with the media and the public.

Highlights and recommendations from the report include

• "The need for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use its existing statutory authorities to establish mandatory and enforceable safety standards for fresh produce. While FDA officials said the outbreak showed the need for these standards, they said Congress needs to pass legislation to grant it explicit authority to do so. However, the report notes that FDA has already used existing authorities to put in place preventive safety standards for seafood in 1995 and for juice in 2001.
• The need for organizational reforms throughout the public health system for a more coordinated outbreak response. The report raises questions about how timely and effectively data was shared between public health agencies and if it contributed to a delayed identification of jalapeno and Serrano peppers as a vehicle for Salmonella Saintpaul.
• The need to have established and unified risk communication plans in place before an outbreak. The report documents “dueling” public health messages from various agencies announcing the outbreak, and questions why the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its presentation of data numerous times in the middle of the outbreak."

United Fresh supports produce safety standards that are federally mandated, commodity-specific, risk-based and that apply to both imported and domestic fresh produce. United Fresh has testified in Congressional and FDA hearings to our position and other produce organizations throughout the industry have also shown support for these principles. In addition, United Fresh has testified that transparency, clearly defined authority, industry involvement and better risk communication are critical to better outbreak management. The PSP report provides information and insights that will help public health authorities and industry as we work together to determine how best to prevent outbreaks and improve outbreak detection and response. For more on the PSP report, contact Patrick Delaney, communications manager at 202-303-3417.