Hello everyone, I’m Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, and I’d like to welcome you
to The Sonny Side of the Farm.
Hello everyone.
This is Secretary Sonny Perdue again and welcome back to the Sonny Side of the Farm, a podcast
that tells you what we’re doing here at the Department of Agriculture and where we
hope to go.
Today, we're going to talk about the safety of the American food supply.
And I recently went to Europe and I’m going again to the United Kingdom in a few weeks.
Over there, there is a lot of myths and fears regarding the safety of the U.S. food supply,
so I want to go to the experts.
Here in the United States we know how safe, tasty and wholesome our food is, but it’s
critical that we help the rest of the world to know that as well.
So today to help me set the record straight is Carmen Rottenburg.
Carmen has been a star at the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service for over 13 years and has
been a leader in our Food Safety and Inspection Service for several years.
So Carmen, welcome and thank you for being here today.
Let’s get down to the facts.
Absolutely, thanks for having me.
Here in the United States we’re facing this big problem where folks in the UK and EU are
under the impression that our food, specifically our poultry is unsafe.
What do you think about that?
Oh that is absolutely false.
I think that you're right that there is this perception out there that the approach that
we use to combating pathogens like salmonella and campylobacter is because there's some
sort of substandard product coming in, but in fact the EU has even a greater problem
with salmonella than we do here.
And so pathogens exist in meat and poultry and it’s our job as regulators to be honest
brokers of that information and ensure that we're trying to drive those rates down.
Well even the EU, their Environmental Safety is it..
ESFA
ESFA?
ESFA.
That’s right.
ESFA has really declared tell us what they said about the products we use.
Absolutely, I mean we talk about pathogen reduction treatments.
The European Food Safety Authority has said that there’s no public health risks associated
with using a pathogen reduction treatment.
As part of a multi-hurdle approach to really driving down race of salmonellosis and campylobacter.
Well let’s talk about what we actually do here, the process in the United States and
the facts on how safe our food really is.
You know in the United States we set salmonella performance standards and we identify the
performance standards by looking at our healthy people goals, which are goals we set across
government.
And we’re looking at what rates of salmonella would we need to see driving down in order
to drive down the rates of illness.
And we set those standards, and the industry needs to work to meet those standards.
And you know, there's no silver bullet along in the food production chain.
There is a multi-hurdle approach from the breeder flocks, to the hatchery, all the way
to the processing plants.
So this perception that the only place that producers are actually trying to combat bacterial
contamination on the bird is at the processing establishment couldn't be further from the
truth.
The way we drive down illness rates in the United States is by taking a multi-hurdle
approach, and industry does that.
They have sanitation.
As you know, the poultry industry in this country is vertically integrated.
What we mean by that is there are specifications processors have for their growers for sanitation,
pest control management, biosecurity.
And so from the time that these chicks are hatched to when they make it to the processing
plant, there's really significant controls.
You know the people in the EU and the politicians there in the UK integrate our poultry by calling
it, “chlorinated chicken.”
That's not factually accurate is it?
That’s not factually accurate.
There are certain compounds that can be used we call them pathogen reduction treatments
that can be used on poultry in the processing of poultry.
And those are processing aids, they are not additives, so there is no chlorine or parasitic
acid.
There's none of these compounds exist for other organic compounds that are used by producers
that doesn't exist on the poultry when it goes to the consumer.
You used a scary word, Carmen.
Parasitic acid that sounds so dangerous.
What exactly is parasitic acid?
Parasitic acid is actually just a combination of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, which are
two household items.
Most all of us have in our cabinets somewhere at home.
Hydrogen peroxide and vinegar, that’s parasitic acid?
Yes sir, that’s correct.
And that’s what we’re treating our poultry with at the last step.
You indicated very carefully that it’s in the best interest of all these people who
sell chicken to make sure it’s safe all the way through.
Healthy and safe from the time they’re hatched all the way through.
It’s in their benefit because they can’t correct problems that originated earlier through
any kind of process.
Yes, that’s absolutely correct.
You know the European Food Safety Authority over the years has even been somewhat critical
of the federal inspection regime in Europe for not really looking for salmonella and
campylobacter and identifying ways to reduce rates.
Europe has a higher rate of foodborne illness than North America does.
That's something that I think Europe is moving in the direction of looking at salmonella
and campylobacter and trying to pay attention to action plans, but in this country, we've
been doing that since late 90s.
Did I hear you say this parasitic acid that people use as a final pathogen reduction treatment
doesn't stay on the chicken?
How does that work?
Yeah it doesn’t stay on the chicken.
It oxidizes which means..
Just like I put hydrogen peroxide on my hand.
Exactly, if you get a cut at home and you put some hydrogen peroxide on it, it bubbles
up, it oxidizes and it's no longer.
If you were to test your skin, if you're to test poultry and we do, if you’re to test
it when it comes out of the final treatment, the final wash you would not be able to detect
any parasitic acid on the product.
So if I understand, we’re taking two very safe every day household products together
and we use them to reduce the potential for bacteria on our chicken and it doesn’t stay
there.
That’s all correct?
That’s all correct.
It’s also it's completely safe, there’s no public health risk associated with use.
And on the contrary there actually is public health concern about salmonella and campylobacter,
the very bacteria that these harmless compounds kill.
The fact is we’re doing this extra step just to make sure that the poultry consumed
by our families is healthy and safe for no other reason than to reduce salmonella, any
potential salmonella that may have escaped.
Then why would the Europeans continue to denigrate that product?
Yeah it’s really hard to understand that in this country our poultry producers are
able to produce a safe and healthy product that is nutritionally the same as the product
that's produced in the European Union.
And so this idea that the chicken is somehow substandard, it just couldn't be further from
the truth.
And anyone who walks into a regulated poultry establishment in the United States would see
that's not true and how we do things.
So we’re not exactly asking people just to trust us.
There are international, science-based regulations that govern how we do things internationally
so we can trade freely.
Is that correct?
That’s correct and you know the international body that governs standards across the world
is Codex.
And Codex actually also indicates that using these compounds as part of a multi hurdle
approach to combat salmonella and campylobacter and other bacteria is an acceptable and even
advisable notion.
Not only Codex, but as we said earlier the European Food Safety Authority EFSA, it’s
easy for everybody to say that, gave a positive review of that parasitic acid treatment and
supports safe and sound methods for reducing food borne illness.
So why is it the Europeans won't trust their own food safety experts?
You know it’s hard to say, but as regulators we need to be honest brokers of the information
and when we have consumers that write to us and call us and have different kinds of preferences
that they want to be science based policies we tell them the science and data behind why
we make our policies.
And I just think the European Union can't do that with the policies that they have and
they should, they need to be honest brokers.
Well in fact I remember hearing about a study from back in 2015 by the World Health Organization,
not exactly a U.S. Agency there, but the World Health Organization had some data facts about
instances of food borne illnesses analysis.
Can you tell us about it?
Yes, so the World Health Organization in a 2015 study looked at data from 2011 around
the world and you know, they do this every so many years and they found that the rates
of foodborne illness in the US and Canada or lower, that’s the sub-region that’s
identified, or lower even than in Western Europe.
Well in fact we know because of the wholesomeness, the healthiness of it the poultry meat has
become a popular, if not the most popular source of protein in the U.S. and we consume
a lot of it.
In fact I’m told twice as much as the Europeans.
But then the foodborne illness from salmonella shows a different thing.
What are the facts about foodborne illnesses comparatively?
Right so if you look at the information from the Center of Disease Control in the U.S.
verses the Center of Disease Control in Europe you see that the rates for salmonellosis are
higher in the EU than they are in the United States.
Not all those cases are attributable to poultry rates because you can get salmonellosis from
other things, but it does show that this kind of multi-hurdle approach the producers use
in this country is doing an effective job at driving down those rates of illness.
Okay Carmen, you’re a homer.
You work for USDA and you're just paid to say all these great things, but the fact is
you already submitted your resignation and are going to use your talents in the private
sector.
So you really don’t have any reason to say these things about our food safety record
without them being true and you've been there you've lived these things.
Can you say that on the basis of the facts of what you’ve seen the U.S. has the safest
food supply in the world?
I can say that the U.S. has the safest food supply in the world and in addition to leading
this agency for several years now, I also have three small children who eat poultry
multiple times every week and I feed them U.S. poultry very confidently in the safety
aspect.
So you don’t have a problem feeding them this U.S. food here?
That’s right.
Well good, I think we do know the brand of what you have led that USDA Mark of inspection
is really kind of like the gold seal there and we appreciate that.
Obviously, we want people to trust their food and the efforts that you and your team at
the Food Safety Inspection Service has been based on that trust and the facts bear out
that I guess you probably know about the statistics for foodborne illnesses probably occur at
home than the food that’s processed can offer.
There’s a number of foodborne illnesses, menorah virus is a perfect example of that,
but yes.
Well I'm going to be traveling to the UK in a couple weeks here and I would love to help
him understand, the people in UK and Europe to understand that our food is healthy, safe
and affordable so we can open markets to them.
But also, it's really customer Choice.
Don't keep our product out.
Let their customers try it and see.
Frankly we know a lot of European consumers come here and brag on our food while they’re
in the US.
That is absolutely the case.
We want to be able to help the European consumer know that they can trust the safety of U.S.
poultry based on frankly the work you and your team do and the work they will continue
to do after they’re gone.
We just want to encourage governments to give their citizens choice where they can have
the same access to the healthy, affordable, safe, wholesome food that our U.S. citizens
indulge in.
I want to thank you today, really I want to thank you for over 13 years of work here.
You’ve been a real little star and a real leader in modernizing our inspection services.
We’re always trying to improve that process, we're Never Satisfied.
As you know food safety is a zero tolerance.
We’d be extremely happy if there was never any kind of instance of foodborne illness
and I must say that as much poultry as U.S. people consume, including you and me, we do
a pretty good job and I want to thank you for that.
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for joining us today and listening to the Sonny Side of The Farm and
we look forward to having you back on the next episode.