Is Food Safety Improving?

USDA cites successes in food safety; Sheetz beset by salmonella outbreak

By Scott Hume, Executive Managing Editor -- Restaurants & Institutions, 8/15/2004

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last month released a new report outlining its successes in improving food safety just as a major convenience-store chain struggled with a foodborne-illness outbreak.

USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elsa Murano issued “Fulfilling the Vision: Initiatives in Protecting Public Health,” tracing what the agency says were its accomplishments in 2003, including enhanced safeguards against mad cow disease, new training programs for Food Safety and Inspection Service employees and strengthened food-security measures.

Murano’s report also sets out USDA’s agenda for future safety initiatives, including establishment of a Food Safety Institute of the Americas where information from the United States, Canada and Mexico could be exchanged. Last year’s hepatitis A outbreak at a Chi-Chi’s restaurant in western Pennsylvania was traced to green onions from Mexico.

Tainted tomatoes appeared to have been responsible for at least 60 cases of salmonellosis traced to food purchased from Sheetz convenience stores in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

In a letter posted on its Web site, Steve Sheetz, chairman of the Altoona, Pa.-based c-store chain, told customers that health-department investigators believe the salmonella-contaminated produce was delivered by a supplier and had found no link to improper food handling or food-safety practices by Sheetz employees.

The chain discarded all tomatoes and lettuce from its nearly 300 stores, sanitized food-prep areas, changed produce suppliers and switched to hothouse tomatoes for sandwiches and salads.