At last week's annual meeting of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, United Fresh Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Technology Dr. David Gombas stressed the importance of including industry assets and feedback in all efforts to optimize response to disease outbreaks in the food supply.
"The path to improving foodborne outbreak response will undoubtedly integrate the skills and efforts of federal, state and local public health agencies," said David. "But to best protect public health, that integration must find a way to include the knowledge and skills of industry."
David was an invited panelist this week, alongside officials from CDC and FDA, in a session on Improving Response Capabilities with Food Emergencies at the meeting, held in Oak Brook, Ill.
"Lessons learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, announced one year ago this week, demonstrate that the industry has knowledge of production and distribution practices that can support, or correct, conclusions drawn solely from epidemiology," David continued.
Gombas noted during his talk that the produce industry is in active discussion with both FDA and CDC on ways to make this critical information accessible.
