More than twelve years after the 1998 IOM report, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act was implemented in January 2011. This Act is supported by consumers, public health advocates, and major industry groups as an important advancement for mandatory recall powers and national/international inspections. Although the Act specifically addresses FDA needs and issues, it also tasks the agency to collaborate with other federal agencies to coordinate and improve strategies on prevention, traceability, and accountability, for U.S.-grown and imported foods.
The President’s Food Safety Working Group (WG) is another example of collaboration between Federal agencies. USDA and DHHS, along with several partner agencies, make up the WG whose core mission is to strengthen federal efforts and develop strategies to improve food safety. The WG advises the President on the efficacy of U.S. food safety legislation, opportunities for fostering coordination of food safety efforts through the government, and ensuring laws are adequately enforced to keep food safe. The three core guiding principles of the current WG support: 1) outbreak prevention, 2) effective food safety inspections and enforcement, and 3) surveillance of and intervention in outbreaks of foodborne illness. Allied to these core principles is the need to address the science-based national food safety objectives outlined in the Healthy People 2020, a CDC initiative to improve the health of Americans.
http://www.usda.gov/documents/food-safety-sci...-paper.pdf
Institute of Medicine (IOM). (1998). Ensuring Safe Food from Product to Consumption. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Institute of Medicine (IOM). (2003). Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
