Food safetyBeef Industry Safety Summit notes successes, challenges
The U.S. beef industry says that beef is increasingly safe and that consumers have more confidence in beef safety, but challenges remain
As some 230 beef safety expert gathered together in Tampa, Florida in early March for the 10th anniversary of the Beef Industry Safety Summit, they celebrated their successes in increasing beef safety and in growing consumer confidence in their products.
Walt Barnhart, writing for cattlenetwork.com, reported on a statement by Bill Marler of the law firm Marler Clark, which has represented a substantial number of complainants in beef-related cases, including the infamous Jack-in-the-Box E. coli outbreak, an industry challenge of twenty years ago.
Through a keynote panel, Marler told the group that his litigation business had gone from 95 percent beef-related twenty years ago to less than 5 percent today.
“You can tell from the marketplace that the industry has done a helluva job,” he told the food safety attendees. “That’s a tribute to everyone in this room.”
Dave Theno, another panel member, said that while the Jack-in-the-Box tragedy was a wake-up call, it was the 2002 ConAgra recall of nineteen19 million pounds of ground beef that was the driving force for the creation of the Beef Industry Safety Summit, which gathers leading food safety experts in one place to exchange the latest in research and industry best practices.
The challenge the summit faces now is that while attention is rightfully being turned to Salmonella, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cites as being responsible for the most deaths and hospitalizations, the Beef Summit will lose its focus on continuing improvement in the battle against E. coli.
Another challenge, and one that is being successfully met, is bringing the beef ranchers and producers into the best-practices forum. Cattlemen and ranchers have come to realize that improving end-product safety is a task not just for the processors, but for every component of the beef production cycle.
Learning what is being done after a beef animal leaves a ranch or feedlot helps producers renew their commitment to reduce pathogens in the animals they market.
As one cow-calf/stocker producer from Oklahoma, Clay Burtrum, said, “We’re not just in the cattle business, we’re in the food business. If consumers don’t feel safe with our product it doesn’t matter what we produce, because they won’t buy it.”
