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 Contents

• Front Matter
• Executive Summary
• 1 Historical Perspective on the Use of Food Safety Criteria and Performance Standards
• 2 The Science of Public Health Surveillance
• 3 Food Safety Tools
• 4 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Meat and Poultry Products
• 5 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Seafood
• 6 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Produce and Related Products
• 7 Scientific Criteria and Performance Standards to Control Hazards in Dairy Products
• 8 Overall Findings and Recommendations
• Appendix A: Current and Proposed Definitions of Key Food Safety Terms
• Appendix B: Sanitation Performance Standards
• Appendix C: Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency Guidance Levels for Seafoods
• Appendix D: Food Defect Action Levels in Produce
• Appendix E: International Microbiological Criteria
• Appendix F: International Microbiological Criteria for Dairy Products
• Appendix G: U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Marketing Service Standards for Milk and Dairy Products
• Appendix H: Biographical Sketches of Committee and Subcommittee Members
• Index