Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 10

COMMENTARY

Moving forward on food safety

nhancing food safety is an industry goal all com- food-safety activities, sources said. Dickson provided an
panies, regardless of size, should have as their top interesting analogy, however, on placing too much of an
priority. In this issue of MEAT&POULTRY, one ar- emphasis on testing: "Relying solely, or to a large extent, on
ticle addresses the signiﬁcance of rapid testing for patho- test results is the equivalent of driving in heavy trafﬁc and
gens, how and why rapid testing has evolved and how it only watching the road for 10 feet directly in front of you.
may evolve in the future.
You miss all of the surrounding
threats and hazards, which may
Several sources cautioned that
cause you to have an accident.
when looking ahead to further imThe only way to assure that the
proving food safety, one of the bigproduct is 100-percent safe is to
gest issues is not so much actual
test 100 percent of the product
product testing as it is sampling. Dr.
Jim Dickson, from the department of
- and then, of course, there is
animal science at Iowa State Univ.,
nothing left. The only way to abAmes, reminded me that while the
solutely assure that none of the
meat industry has made some reﬁneproduct will make a consumer
ments in rapid-testing methodology,
ill is to not sell it."
the results are only as meaningful
Dickson is skeptical of the
as the samples.
claims of statistical probabil"The less-glamorous part of testity regarding food safety since
ing, in general, is sampling, and so
he has heard many food comwe have devoted less effort to it,"
panies brag about the statistiDickson said. "The issue is both
cal accuracy of their sampling
statistical sampling and sampling
and testing programs. "I usutechniques and methodologies.
ally address that with a quesPhoto courtesy of USDA
The term 'statistical sampling' has
tion," he said. "All of my chilbeen used a lot in recent years,
dren have played or currently
Sampling and testing should
but the reality is that there is very
play soccer, so this rings true
little [if any] statistics behind most
to many soccer parents. 'Would
be considered as a single
sampling plans."
you allow your son or daughfunction.
He pointed out that a poorly
ter to play soccer on a ﬁeld that
designed sampling plan combined
was 90-percent clear of land
with an equally poor sampling method renders even the mines?' The difﬁculty is in developing a sampling and
best detection assay useless. "I think back to what an in- testing program that can detect a pathogen that occurs
dustry leader told me almost a decade ago about sampling very infrequently."
This might seem like a defeatist attitude, in the sense that
for E. coli O157:H7," Dickson said. "He said, in reference
if
industry
cannot absolutely guarantee food safety, then why
to test results: 'I know what a positive means. I have no
bother,
he
asked.
"I would turn that around and say, 'What more
idea of what a negative means.'"
Sampling and testing should be considered as a single can we do to assure food safety?' All compafunction. Companies are so highly focused on detection nies will have to do more," he added.
This particularly rings true regardmethods that they often forget that the results are only
as good as the original sample. "An assay method, which ing the continuing spike in E. coli
gives you a test result in ﬁve minutes, from a poor sam- O157:H7 recalls and outbreaks. "The
pling plan, is meaningless," he said.
current trend of E. coli illnesses and
recalls, especially during an election
One spoke in the wheel
year, is simply begging for more fedAlthough testing is one of the most critical aspects in main- eral regulations," Dickson warned.
taining and improving food safety, it is the ﬁnal spoke in "And as I have told people in the
the food-safety wheel. After all of the prerequisite pro- past, if you don't like the way it is
By Bryan Salvage,
grams, monitoring and corrective actions are in place, now, you surely will not like what
Senior Editor
bsalvage@sosland.com
testing serves as a ﬁ nal veriﬁcation of a company's total is coming."
10

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September 2008

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Meat + Poultry - September 2008

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