Why foodborne illness outbreaks?
2-min read
If you produce at a contract manufacturer, or supply one, or are one… or if you are just generally curious about how we ensure food is produced safely, today’s topic is for you.
When it comes to the food that consumers purchase, regulators say it is the brands’ responsibility to make sure it is safe to eat.
There is a lot of trust involved in that statement – consumers trust brands, and brands trust manufacturers, and manufacturers trust suppliers.
The reason I say ‘trust’ is because even though there are regulatory standards, it is the people within the organization that dictate the performance of quality programs.
Of all the recent foodborne illness outbreaks, the horror of what happened at Abbott Nutrition’s infant formula plant in Michigan is hands down the ultimate example of people failing the quality process. This is an extreme example, but the recipe for disaster here is much the same for less newsworthy food quality mishaps.
There’s a lot to unpack but here are the basics:
The FDA was slow – slow to trace the bacteria back to the plant and prior to that, slow to do follow-up inspections after problems had already been reported.
Inspections showed problems dating back to 2019 – a whistleblower reported problems which were being overlooked repeatedly at the plant.
Finally, in February the plant was shut down for “egregiously unsanitary” conditions including a leaky roof, pooling water inside, and cracks in production equipment.
A congressional panel was formed and there have been hearings. Some panel members are asking for stricter FDA oversight and more frequent inspections. Others are urging the CDC to require doctors to report cases of this particular bacteria to public health authorities.
These aren’t bad ideas and maybe if pathogen testing became required during inspections, lives could be saved. Currently, health officials only conduct visual inspections, which were gross at Abbott, meanwhile they were allowed to continue operations.
Similarly, in the cases involving listeria in ice cream, outbreaks were happening over the course of years. Both at Blue Bell in 2015 and Big Olaf this year, listeria was persistent in these plants while they kept shipping product. It wasn’t until outbreaks were traced back to these plants were they finally shut down.
Could more policies and a better functioning FDA solve our foodborne illness problems? Stricter policy could save lives.
But the deeper question is, would more policy get teams working the front lines or senior personnel at plants like Abbott or Big Olaf to suddenly implement corrective actions? I say no.
I think procedures get sloppy because of a lack of leadership, not policy. It’s not like these cos didn’t know what the rules were. They’d been given training. Why did they drop the ball?
More on how to uphold food safety by fostering a culture of quality, and what it means to ‘trust but verify’, next week.
All my best,
Jennifer