The Hill reported recently that USDA is facing growing pressure to ensure the safety of the nation's food supply during the coronavirus outbreak. The report cited a number of experts who believe that the food supply is safe now, but that this is a period of growing challenges for the USDA as food industry workers fall sick and inspectors scramble for limited resources.
The report noted that USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service has recalled only one product over the last two months. On Feb. 8, a product from Family Traditions Meat Company was recalled due to misbranding, it said – but focused on the fact that “there has been a sharp reduction in recalls during the period before April 10, when it recalled chicken bowls from Conagra Brands over possible foreign matter contamination and pork products from Jowett Farms for missing some inspections.”
The report noted that recalls were “flowing in regularly before February,” with five in January, four in December, four in November and three in October. And, while there were no specific signs food safety has been compromised during the pandemic, they urged vigilance and “found the gap in recalls puzzling.”
“I do think that it is unusual that there were no recalls during that time frame,” said Donald Schaffner, a professor of food microbiology at Rutgers University.
"COVID-19 has been a distraction," Schaffner added, but he cautioned that the pandemic "has probably not directly impacted food safety yet."
Benjamin Chapman, food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University, agreed that the outbreak could be a “distraction” with people off work or at home and more resources being devoted to the immediate pandemic response.
"Since COVID-19 is such a huge focus for everyone, not just the food industry, I can see how we all might be a bit distracted from the normal day-to-day operations of the system," Chapman said. "But I would say that in the short term the distractions are likely not leading to changes in food safety."
Still, the lack of recalls comes at a troubling time as concerns about food safety grow, The Hill said. Those worries have gained attention in recent days with the closing of meat processing plants where workers have contracted the coronavirus. Pork processor Smithfield Foods closed two more plants, one in Cudahy, Wis., and one in Martin City, Mo., this week and a worker from its closed Sioux Falls, S.D., facility died. Two employees of Tyson Foods’s Columbus Junction, Iowa, pork processing plant have also died.
The coronavirus will make it harder for USDA inspectors to continue their work even at operating processing plants, the experts said. As the coronavirus outbreak intensified in the U.S. in March, the agency pledged that it would "ensure that grading and inspection personnel are available."
USDA officials wrote to stakeholders recently that it "remains committed to working closely with industry to fulfill our mission of ensuring the safety of the U.S. food supply and protecting agricultural health."
Another food safety agency, the Food and Drug Administration has also seen its resources stretched with the outbreak and scaled back some routine inspection work to protect inspectors.
USDA told The Hill that its Food Safety Inspection workers are on the front line, day in and day out, to make sure our food is safe.”
The spotlight on the agency and its work likely will intensify, particularly if more food service workers fall ill, The Hill said--and it argued that experts had not sounded any specific alarms on the nearly two-month gap in recalls, noting the many factors go into determining food recalls. However, they acknowledged the challenges facing the USDA.
Food recalls in the U.S. have become more common in recent years. The total number of recalls increased by 10 percent between 2013 and 2018, and there were 905 recalls in 2016.
“Consumers have to make sure that they’re practicing safe food handling at home, safety experts say. They recommend washing their hands and separating fresh product from raw product, minimizing their risk as much as possible.”
So, we will see. The decline in recalls is a statistic that USDA should examine closely since it could indicate growing pressures on the inspection process. And, given threats from the virus and its impacts, the decline in recalls is a development USDA should make sure consumers understand in this period of tension and uncertainty, Washington Insider believes.
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