Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food

Food safety regulators face a daunting task: crafting food safety performance standards and systems that continue in the tradition of using the best available science to protect the health of the American public, while working within an increasingly antiquated and fragmented regulatory framework. Current food safety standards have been set over a period of years and under diverse circumstances, based on a host of scientific, legal, and practical constraints. Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food lays the groundwork for creating new regulations that are consistent, reliable, and ensure the best protection for the health of American consumers. This book addresses the biggest concerns in food safety—including microbial disease surveillance plans, tools for establishing food safety criteria, and issues specific to meat, dairy, poultry, seafood, and produce. It provides a candid analysis of the problems with the current system, and outlines the major components of the task at hand: creating workable, streamlined food safety standards and practices.Table of ContentsFront MatterExecutive Summary1 Historical Perspective on the Use of Food Safety Criteria and Performance Standards2 The Science of Public Health Surveillance3 Food Safety Tools4 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Meat and Poultry Products5 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Seafood6 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Produce and Related Products7 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Dairy Products8 Overall Findings and RecommendationsAppendix A: Current and Proposed Definitions of Key Food Safety TermsAppendix B: Sanitation Performance StandardsAppendix C: Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency Guidance Levels for SeafoodsAppendix D: Food Defect Action Levels in ProduceAppendix E: International Microbiological CriteriaAppendix F: International Microbiological Criteria for Dairy ProductsAppendix G: U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Marketing Service Standards for Milk and Dairy ProductsAppendix H: Biographical Sketches of Committee and Subcommittee MembersIndex