2008 PRESS RELEASES
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July 11, 2008
FOOD SAFETY – A TOP PRIORITY
By Todd P. Haymore, Commissioner, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services
Contact: Elaine J. Lidholm, 804.786.7686
For most folks, summertime means cookouts and picnics with family and friends. Until recently, most picnickers never gave a second thought to food safety. It’s on everyone’s minds this summer, however, as we are bombarded with headlines about salmonella in tomatoes and e coli in hamburger.
Every day throughout the Commonwealth, Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ (VDACS) employees crisscross the state with one goal in mind: protecting the food supply. We accomplish this with nearly 100 employees, and each one is dedicated to ensuring that food products, dairy products and dietary supplements are safe, wholesome and properly labeled. These employees represent more than 20 percent of our total workforce. That’s how serious we are about protecting the food supply from farm to table, and at every stop in-between. I thought you might like to know just what they do since it is your food supply they are protecting.
Food Safety and Security
Food Safety Specialists within the Food Safety and Security Program (FSSP) inspect food establishments, including processors like canneries or bakeries, warehouses, and retail outlets such as grocery or convenience stores. FSSP employees inspect an infinite number of products. Their responsibility covers not only traditional products such as baked goods, seafood, produce and beverage products, but also extends to diverse and higher-risk food processing operations like vacuum-packaged foods and low-acid canned food products.
Our FSSP employees work closely with counterparts at both the state and federal levels. They work closely with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in responding to disaster situations where food manufacturers and warehousing operations are impacted and with other partners to monitor the safety of the food supply. In response to foodborne outbreaks, they work in tandem with the local health departments to provide traceback information and product sampling.
Over the past two years, the Food Safety and Security Program has averaged approximately 16,000 food safety inspections and visits in 12,000 firms. Inspectors collected 1,820 food and food-related samples. They received and investigated 759 consumer complaints relating to foodborne illnesses and other concerns with food products purchased or consumed.
In addition to their food safety efforts, inspectors also focus on food security to protect the food supply from acts of tampering or terrorism. When possible, they do food security audits in addition to their food safety inspections. This work includes aiding Virginia’s food industry in implementing food security into their establishments, publishing a semi-annual newsletter focusing on food safety and security and Food Security Web page at www.vdacs.virginia.gov/foodsafety/bioterrorism.shtml.
Dairy Services
The Dairy Services Program (DSP) regulates the production, processing and sale of milk and milk products, ice cream and frozen desserts, cheese, milk powder, condensed milk and butter. Milk safety programs operated by the Dairy Services Program are divided into three main areas: 1) grade “A” milk, 2) milk for manufacturing purposes and 3) ice cream and frozen desserts.
Fluid milk products like whole milk, skim milk, low fat milk, nonfat milk, cottage cheese and yogurt are regulated as grade “A” products. Dairy inspectors conduct more than 2,000 inspections annually of grade “A” dairy farms, milk tank trucks, milk receiving rooms and milk tank truck wash facilities to monitor compliance with sanitary requirements. In addition dairy inspectors collect more than 9,000 milk samples from dairy farms and milk transport tanks to monitor compliance with quality standards. Dairy inspectors also make in excess of 1,000 visits each year to consult with dairy farmers, milk marketing field personnel, milk haulers and others in the dairy industry to provide advice and assistance about complying with regulatory requirements.
In addition to food safety, dairy inspectors educate dairy farms and dairy processors concerning food security and what can be done to prevent incidents of tampering or bioterrorism.
Meat and Poultry Services
The Office of Meat and Poultry Services (OMPS) works in state plants where the products bear the Virginia mark of inspection and in federal plants, called Tallmadge Aiken or T/A plants, where the products bear a federal mark of inspection. The main difference is that Virginia-marked products, unlike the T/A products, cannot be sold across state lines.
OMPS inspects both slaughter and processing plants. An inspector must be present every day they operate. In addition to their work that mandates constant inspection, many plants also do custom work that does not require constant inspection. Custom work includes anything done for a fee where the product returns to the owner and is not resold. Meat and Poultry inspectors must ensure that plants follow their HACCP plans. VDACS has 24 inspectors for 15 state plants, 33 federal/state plants, and 110 custom plants.
Inspectors ensure the production of a safe, wholesome, and truthfully labeled meat and poultry products as well as humane treatment of the animals. They inspect every animal, both ante mortem and post mortem.
OMPS inspectors check each step of the process: cutting and wrapping, grinding hamburger or sausage or further processing for ready-to-eat meals, soups or other products. Here, too, inspectors ensure that plants follow their HACCP plan. They inspect for contamination, check sanitation and temperature controls, and review the pasteurization (cooking) and stabilization (cooling) steps. They also check labels for allergens, weight and accuracy, and check the substantiation for all claims such as Organic, All Natural or 100% Angus beef.
Last year, OMPS inspectors made 20,261 sanitation and facility inspections; 11,823 food safety inspections; and 5,436 economic inspections. In addition, they performed 8,315 food security checks.
As the father of three young children and the uncle of several nephews and a niece, I’m looking forward to a summer of good eating, and I feel a whole lot safer knowing that these food safety personnel are out there every day inspecting and monitoring our food supply. We are fortunate in America to have the safest, most affordable and most abundant food supply in the world, and I am very proud of our VDACS employees who help keep it that way.