…Your Voice for Safe Food

By Julian Pecquet - 03/23/12 02:57 PM ET

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and an array of consumer groups urged quick action after a federal court ruled that the Food and Drug Administration must start withdrawing approval for the use of unsafe antibiotics in animal agriculture.

"The FDA has been dragging its feet on this for 35 years," Slaughter said in a statement Friday. "We've all known that this is a public health issue for quite some time. … I'm pleased to finally see some progress, and I can only hope that we see swift action from the FDA on this looming crisis."

The drug and agriculture industries say feeding antibiotics to animals that aren't sick keeps them healthy and protects consumers. Critics of the practice say it risks making life-saving medicines less effective, an opinion New York Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz appeared to share Thursday.

"Research has shown that the use of antibiotics in livestock leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can be — and has been — transferred from animals to humans through direct contact, environmental exposure and the consumption and handling of contaminated meat and poultry products," Katz wrote.

Steven Roach, the public health program director at Food Animal Concerns Trust, called the court order "a great victory for public health."

"After decades of delay, the FDA finally will be forced to act on two of the major antibiotics in livestock feeds," he said in a statement. "The court made clear that voluntary action by drug companies is no substitute for FDA fulfilling its mandate to withdraw from the market drugs that have [been] found to be unsafe."

The federal agency is expected to issue formal guidance next week on restricting antibiotic use in healthy animals. Like the initial guidance announced two years ago, the new guidance is expected to still rely on voluntary compliance by farmers and ranchers.

The court ruled in a lawsuit against the FDA filed last May by the National Resources Defense Council and three other member groups of Keep Antibiotics Working: the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the Food Animal Concerns Trust and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Original Article here: http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/food-safety/217869-swift-fda-action...

Nancy Donley
Board Member, STOP Foodborne Illness

My only child, Alex, died from Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome caused by eating E. coli O157:H7-contaminated ground beef back in 1993 when he was only 6 years old. It was the most horrendous experience possible. His first symptoms were severe abdominal cramping and bowel movements that consisted strictly of blood and mucus. Alex suffered terribly as his organs shut down one by one. At one point one of his lungs collapsed requiring bedside surgery. His brain swelled so horribly that shunts were drilled into his head in an effort to relieve the pressure, but to no avail. My brave little boy’s last words to me before slipping into a coma were, “Don’t cry Mommy” as I couldn’t stop the tears from silently flowing. His last gesture to his dad was to blow him a kiss. I was with him when he suffered a grand mal seizure and was put on a ventilator. My little boy, my only child, was dead.

Alex had wanted to be a paramedic when he grew up so that he “could help others”, his words. So when he died we hoped to be able to donate his organs so that he could fulfill that wish of helping others but his organs were unsalvageable because of the damage caused by the toxins.

There was no cure for this awful disease then and there still isn’t today. Doctors can only hope to support bodily systems until the toxins pass through. It is for this reason that it is critically important for meat and poultry companies to put into place prevention strategies and technologies to ensure that contaminated meat doesn’t make its way into the marketplace. That’s why we need to support innovations and advances that enhance food safety.

After Alex’s death, I felt compelled—really more like obligated—to fulfill his wish of helping and protecting other consumers by being his voice and working with federal regulating agencies and with companies to see to it that we did a better job as a country in generating a safer food supply. In the process I have visited numerous meat and poultry plants, have provided input on public policies and food safety laws and have served on the National Advisory Board for Meat and Poultry Inspection.

One of the many plants I visited was Beef Products, Inc. I got to know the owners, Eldon and Regina Roth, and was impressed by their complete commitment to the safety and wholesomeness of the meat products that they produced. I was also impressed by the food safety culture that they instilled throughout their company. We shed tears together over what happened to Alex and realized how we share the common goal of preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens. Ever since that moment, BPI has generously supported STOP and has never asked for anything in return.

That said, one point that needs to be perfectly clear is this: After what I personally experienced watching my son suffer and die, I am very skeptical and cynical about for-profit meat companies and their professed commitment to food safety. Not all companies “walk their talk”. BPI does.

There has been a lot of misinformation swirling around the internet and on TV about lean beef trim produced by Beef Products, Inc. As I stated earlier, I have personally visited their plant and the categorization of calling their product “pink slime” is completely false and incendiary. Consumers need to understand that this product is meat, period, and that the use of ammonia hydroxide in minute amounts during processing improves the safety of the product and is routinely used throughout the food industry. There are many types of interventions including food grade antimicrobial sprays which are used on all manner of foods. Some of these things may sound icky and gross, especially when inaccurately portrayed. These interventions are necessary in ridding meat of deadly pathogens and are required to prove they pose no threats to consumers. Companies would be prohibited by the USDA and FDA to use substances that could be harmful in human consumption.

I am very concerned that mis-categorization campaigns such as this “pink slime” campaign will cause well-intentioned companies such as BPI to cease innovations for developing better food safety technologies and strategies. Why try to do something better only to get set up as a target? If this does in fact happen, and promising technologies get thwarted, we, the American public, will be the losers. And tragedies like Alex will continue to go on and on and on.

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STOP Foodborne Illness is a national non profit, public health organization dedicated to preventing foodborne illness and death from foodborne pathogens by:

• Advocating for sound public policy
• Building public awareness
• Assisting those impacted by foodborne illness

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While STOP Foodborne illness does not endorse specific companies or technologies, we applaud those that foster innovation for better processes that lead to safer foods.

WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Louise Slaughter (NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee and the only microbiologist in Congress, today sent a letter to over 60 fast food companies, producers, processors, and grocery chains asking them to disclose their policies on antibiotic use in meat and poultry production.
In addition to asking for company policy, Slaughter asked the restaurants to provide a breakdown of the percentages of beef, pork and poultry which they serve raised "without any antibiotics," raised with antibiotics only for "therapeutic reasons," or raised with "routine use of antibiotics."
"Very simply, consumers have a right to know what's in their food," said Slaughter. "It's like that old commercial, 'where's the beef?' We just want to know, 'what's in the beef?' The US is facing a growing public health crisis in the form of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and information about how these companies are contributing to its rise or resolution should be available to consumers."
Citing some alarming statistics, including that in 2011 the US had the most outbreaks ever of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella due to contaminated meat and poultry, the letter noted that "the practice of routinely feeding antibiotics to chickens, cows, and swine has been shown to harm human health by contributing to diseases that do not respond to treatment."

This article continues at: http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id...
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