Food Recall – A Serious Question to Food Safety and Food Security

Everyday, a number of food companies are recalling their food items and interestingly the number is on rise. Reasons for these recalls are mostly presence of life threatening organisms like Salmonella, undeclared allergens, and Listeria monocytogenes in the recalled items. Now, with incessant recalling of food products, questions that come into our mind are ‘Why so many food companies are recalling their food items?” “Why don't they check the safety of the food before releasing in market when they know unsafe food items can claim lives of many?”

Unsafe food can transmit disease from person to person as well as serve as a growth medium for bacteria that can cause food poisoning and take lives of many. To avoid this situation, food regulatory bodies have passed different regulatory measures, which ensure that food safety has been properly taken care of before releasing a food item in market.

In the U.S., The Food and Drug Administration publishes the Food Code, a model set of guidelines and procedures that assists food control jurisdictions by providing a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service industries, including restaurants, grocery stores and institutional foodservice providers such as nursing homes.

There are 15 agencies sharing oversight responsibilities in the food safety system, although the two primary agencies are the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which is responsible for the safety of meat, poultry, and processed egg products, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is responsible for virtually all other foods.

A few regulations propagated by the FDA, can help the food producing companies eradicate the possibilities of recalling their marketed products.

The Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Part 110 (21CFR 110) contains the information about how to follow and successfully implement the quality system regulation guidelines in food industry and in food products through implementing and following cGMP in manufacturuing, packing or holding human food.

9CFR417 is another regulation that deals with the quality and safety aspect of meat and poultry.

21CFR120 regulates safety and quality of fruit and vegetable juice and seafood.

The above mentioned regulations, if followed properly, will help the food companies stop to recalling their products in future.