Premium On Safety - Issue 17, 2015 - 7

SMS CORNER
Aviation Food Safety and Security
Preventing Foodborne Illness in the Air BY JEAN DIBLE
General aviation food handling is nonregulated
in the U.S. due to lack of
commerce or money changing hands
for food that is served aboard a private
aircraft. Commerce must occur for food
purchases before County Environmental
Health Departments, the Food and Drug
Administration, or the U.S. Department of
Agriculture get involved to regulate and
inspect food service operations. The FAA
trained in the GA industry. When discussing
food safety training with department heads
or independent contractors, most simply
imply that they use "Best Practices," which
is open to clarification and explanation.
But it is also not uncommon for a flight
department to neither adopt nor even
enforce a "best practices" policy for
handling food, water, or ice. I remember
stories from flight attendants at my food
safety training classes
concerning foodborne illness
incidents that resulted
in aircraft diversions-
mishaps admittedly
caused by untrained food
handlers and lack of food
safety enforcement from
management.
"Best Practices" is a
...if untrained and unknown individuals
handle catered food after it leaves
a commercial kitchen, the food can
become unsafe.
has little or no requirements or regulations
concerning general aviation food safety, so
the industry has little or no guidance and
must regulate and inspect themselves.
Additional government interference is
certainly not wanted in the GA industry, but
lack of regulations and food inspections
opens up all kinds of liability for insurance
companies and flight departments. For
purposes of this article, general aviation
food handlers include flight attendants,
pilots, schedulers, flight engineers, and FBO
service employees who order, handle, or
deliver food to an aircraft.
In the majority of U.S. flight departments,
food safety and security have not been
integrated into the required training courses
for flight crews. Contract crew personnel
are also not required to be food safety
catch-all phrase for a lot
of things. Who decides
what the best practices
are for dealing with food if
employees and management
have not been food safety
trained? Best practices
are more like a standard
operating procedure (SOP),
which has to be put in place
before a Hazard Analysis
Critical Control Points
(HACCP) Safety Management
System (SMS) program for food safety can
be written for a flight department. The SOP
supports the best practices, but they are
often generalized procedures that apply to
the entire operation. A food safety HACCP
SMS program focuses on prevention
rather than detection of unsafe food after
a contamination crisis has occurred, and
it cannot be written unless individuals
have had food safety training and have
a thorough understanding of food safety
principles.
Why do flight departments use mini
food safety courses taught by uncertified
instructors, use ground kitchen courses,
or neglect aviation food safety training
altogether? Many flight departments do
not want to spend the money for training
since food service is non-regulated in the
GA industry. Some chief pilots or flight
department directors feel that since they
are ordering food from reputable catering
companies the food is safe and they do
not have to be concerned. Purchased food
from catering companies is usually safe,
but if untrained and unknown individuals
handle catered food after it leaves a
commercial kitchen, the food can become
unsafe. Food abuse usually starts during
the delivery process: It may be delivered
at ambient temperature in a dirty or
contaminated vehicle; delivery time may be
extended, which increases or decreases
the temperature of the hot or cold food; and
food security may be jeopardized during the
delivery process by an unknown person.
Additional safety hazards can arise when
food is stored in a hangar or FBO facility.
There is also a second delivery of the food
from the hangar or FBO to the aircraft.
The catered food has already had twice
the handling as food in a restaurant, and
now it will be stored aboard an aircraft
under more adverse conditions. And most
of all, the food handler may not be trained
to store, prepare, or handle food safely
aboard an airplane. Additionally, some flight
departments ask and encourage flight
attendants to prepare and cook aircraft
meals in their homes or apartments to save
the flight department high catering fees. If
there were a foodborne outbreak or fatality
aboard an aircraft linked to home cooked
food, the civil or criminal liability lawsuit for
a flight department and the insurer could be
in the millions.
According to Thomas Weschler, Economic
Research Services (ERS) - United States
Department of Agriculture, food poisoning
costs the United States an estimated 15
billion dollars annually, which includes
medical cost and productivity (Food Safety
News, January 2015: "USDA: Salmonella
Tops List of 15 Most Costly Pathogens,"
www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/01/
salmonella-costs-the-us-3-7-billion-peryear-among-other-costly-pathogens).
The
15 billion dollar cost does not include
lawsuits and judgments.
The cost of foodborne illness is just one
part of the ongoing contaminated food
(continued on page 8)
7
http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2015/01/salmonella-costs-the-us-3-7-billion-per-year-among-other-costly-pathogens/#.VTZn7yFVhHw
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