Meat Inspection Safety

Before 1958 in the United States, there was no such thing as a Humane Slaughter Act. Processing plants would go about business without stunning the animal before slaughtering, there were no sanitary rules in place, and a lot of the meat product would spoil because there were no proper handling techniques in place. What really caused in uproar in the nation was when Upton Sinclair wrote the book "The Jungle." "Meat scraps were left in large piles inside buildings that leaked...Rats and mice would eat off piles of meat and defecate on the meat...Workers would add poison to bread and place the pieces on the meat piles in hopes of killing the rats...When meat was needed for use, the meat with the poisoned bread and dead rats were used as well." If one could imagine reading this from "The Jungle" in 1904 a person would feel very violated and taken advantage of. So, in 1906 the Federal Meat Inspection act was put into place. This act called for inspection of the animal before and post slaughter and inspection of the plant.

Not much happened in the meat industry between 1906 and 1958.  The Humane Slaughter Act arose in 1958 and it demanded that animals undergo no suffering prior to slaughter. This act required that animals were to be numb to pain by a blow to the forehead, gunshot to the head, electrical stunning on the forehead or breathing in a chemical such as carbon dioxide prior to being killed. These processes are meant to be fast and painless for the animal and the butcher. Immediately following this act, meat packers noticed an increase in meat quality, the animals were no longer fighting the slaughter process, so there was less bruising to the meat itself. There was also reduced stress of the animal, which significantly increased the quality and tenderness of the meat as well.

With the Wholesome Meat Act in 1967-came labeling of meat products and prevention of false labeling. More recently, a slaughterhouse in Ireland got caught mislabeling and selling "beef" to corporate companies and other countries. The companies quickly found out that the slaughterhouse had been false labeling their beef products. Their products actually contained horse meat as well as beef and they left the horse meat out of the labels on the packaging. It is hard to believe that problems like this are still an issue today. Most people believe they can trust their food system and know every product that is being put into their food. Fortunately, living in the United States we have many laws and regulations dealing with food safety to protect the consumers. Research is done daily to find new pathogenic microorganisms that cause foodborne illnesses and preventative steps are put into place by law in order to ensure a safe commodity.

However, with federal budget cuts that are currently happening in our government they want to lay off 8,400 meat inspectors for two weeks this year. It is scary to think of where our nation has been without meat regulation and how easy it could be slip back into old habits without authority laying down the law for consumer safety.


 regulatory acts.pptx-By: Casey Maddock Carlin
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/02/22/ireland-horse-meat/1939727/
http://townhall.com/news/us/2013/02/26/meat-plant-shutdowns-inevitable-in-budget-cuts-usda-n1521238

U.S. Cuts Back on Fast Food Intake, but Kids are Still Obese!

On February 22, 2013, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), conducted a research study that shows adults have more recently cut back on fast food consumption but the obesity rates in children have stayed the same. Although, fast food intake has been slowly decreasing, people still do not realize that all of the greasy food made at home such as french fries, pizza, and cookies do not decrease the fat intake. Studies still show that people who are already obese are consuming more calories, salt, and higher fat diets.

Today with great technology of being able to fry foods and tasty new combinations of foods high in fat, salt, and sugars the calorie amounts have increased since the days of using simple ingredients. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that children are consuming fewer calories but more saturated fats. Saturated fats are fats that are solid at room temperature and produce one of the greatest risks of clogged arteries an example of a saturated fat is butter.

As the nation slowly starts to become more health conscious many food processing companies are altering their foods to the new tastes of consumers. This also includes food and beverages bought by fast food companies; corporations like McDonalds have already taken into consideration the health conscious consumer and provide the calories on food labels and menus. Mostly with adults portion increase has taken place and therefore causes calorie consumption to also increase, which highly affects weight gain. The major concerns that come with obesity are heart disease, diabetes, heart attacks, and many other illnesses associated with being over weight.

In situations like this dealing with obesity, many Americans want to point their fingers at the food industry and blame them for making them the way they are. People have the choice to consume the foods they do, however, many people choose to ignore the Nutrition Facts panel on almost every food product. This panel gives the serving size and servings per container; it also gives calorie intake and calories from fat per serving. The Nutrition Facts panel also gives a list of nutrients; percent of daily values and most panels include daily values at the bottom of the panel based on a 2,000 calorie and 2,500 calorie diets.

However, since many people prefer to disregard these panels, this situation is forced on the food scientists. In this scenario it becomes the food scientists' duty to understand what is the main cause of obesity is in food products and how to reduce it or eliminate it from products. An example of this would be reducing sodium and sucrose levels while increasing fiber; all while keeping the flavor the same, if one could imagine this is a tricky process. A product that has been developed to be healthier for the consumer is so called "butter," examples are brands like Smart Balance and I can't believe it's not Butter! Both products contain no trans fat or saturated fat and are made from either vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil. These products are great examples of what a food scientist can do, by keeping the flavor of butter yet cutting out the fats.




http://www.ift.org/food-technology/daily-news/2013/february/22/adults-cut-back-fast-food-but-us-kids-still-eat-too-much-fat.aspx

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db114.htm

Food Safety Modernization Act

There are thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands hospitalized each year do to foodborne illnesses. In January 2011, President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This act was put into place primarily, so that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has the ability to recall food products. Previously, it was up to the food service company to make that recall. In addition, this act calls for conducting more inspections to facilities including foreign facilities, a closer inspection on imports, setting up prevention plans, knowing the science and risks that come along with processing, and respecting small farmers and their business. 

When it comes to food safety and keeping consumers away from at-risk situations, it is important to have a fast responding system. Since the Food Safety Modernization Act has been established, the Food and Drug Administration has the authority to recall products. This means that if the FDA asks a company to recall their product and they fail to do so, the FDA has the rights to step in and take actions. This new act also gives the FDA authority to suspend the registration of a facility if they feel that it is unfit for health standards. The act has also allowed the opportunity to set up a plan to trace the product from its original farm all the way to the consumer’s table to distinguish where the disease was contracted.

There are a few key points when it comes to prevention in the FSMA act. Food service facilities are required to apply preventative control plans that are written out. The Food and Drug Administration has to establish mandatory processing standards for the production and harvesting of fresh fruit and vegetables. The FDA also must protect against deliberate corruption of the food products. Along with the new prevention system comes the inspection system. A mandatory inspection of food service facilities is required more frequently than before, leaving slight room for poor facilities. This not only includes United States soil, it also includes foreign soil as well.  The Food and Drug Administration will also have access to all of the facilities records so they can document achievements and errors. A final note under prevention is that taste testing will be done in only accredited facilities, so testing will simply meet high quality standards.

Imported food is becoming more common in the United States than it has ever been before. Nowadays there is no such thing as hearing this fruit is not in season, so it cannot be purchased until the summer. Because of importing foods we are able to eat fresh fruit and vegetables year round. FSMA gives the FDA power to make sure foreign products be at United States standards.  It also ensures that food is only coming from certified, eligible food service facilities. This act gives the FDA authority to deny any foreign product. The Food Safety Modernization Act has improved relationships with communication on state and local levels along with the U.S. and foreign countries.  With the increase in communication all parties are producing better and safer food products. Ultimately, this act has been set to provide a safer and higher quality product for the consumer.

http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FSMA/ucm239907.htm

What is Food Science?

Do you know that everything you eat and consume, that is purchased from a store or a restaurant, has been analyzed or created by Food Scientists?

Food Scientists continue to make new and improved products that are healthy, tasty, and safe for consumers. They are making more convenient foods for this fast pace growing world. They reach to all age groups infants, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, and elders. All of these age groups require different sources of nutrition and food scientists fulfill these needs for each age group. Food scientist creates flavors that contribute to soda, flavored water, energy drinks, alcoholic drinks, fruit juices, any type of beverage you can think of. They also create new flavors in candy, ice cream, chips, canned foods, refrigerated foods, boxed foods, frozen foods, anything that can be consumed and bought from a store or restaurant a food scientist creates/deals with.

There are many different careers that come along with being a food scientists a few being, product development, sensory analysis, and consumer safety. Product developer main goals are to take flavors and insert them into different food products. For example, making a potato chip taste like chili cheese french fries, or taking gum and making it taste like a delicious dessert; these are just a couple examples of what product developers do. A person who does sensory analysis is a highly trained panelist who goes through a series of different questions when tasting a new food product. The questions that could be asked are, does the product taste good, what is the texture like, what is the smell like, what do you think of the color, etc? These questions are usually on a ranking scale and that is one of the ways that a company can tell if consumers will thrive for this new product. Sensory analysis is also used to make sure the flavor of each batch taste the exact same, to ensure a high quality product. A person who deals with consumer safety can work for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). They do tasks like investigate food related illnesses or deaths, regulate companies, plan and direct regulatory programs, develop new inspection procedures and techniques. This field of food science is very critical to companies and the consumer; it keeps the consumer safe and protects the companies from possible law suits.

There are many misconceptions that come along with the title of food scientists. A few being that they work in a lab all day, they are chefs, and people do not know they exist. Well this is not true, yes, food scientists can work in a lab, but they do not spend all of their time in it. A lot of discussion occurs within a company world wide to make sure they are all on the same page. For example, Disney Food Scientists in the United States, have phone conferences with Disney in China to share their new ideas with each other. A combination of product development, sensory analysis, and consumer safety can all be taken into consideration at one point in each day of a food scientist.


http://www.ift.org/knowledge-center/learn-about-food-science/world-without-food-science.aspx
http://foodsci.k-state.edu/facilities/sensory-analysis.html
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/WorkingatFDA/CareerDescriptions/ucm113286.htm