At the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and National Research Council (NRC) meeting held on March 24, Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) food scientist Dr. Frank Busta addressed food safety gaps in the Food Protection Plan by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Dr. Busta is a senior science advisor and the interim vice president of science and policy initiatives at IFT and is also director emeritus and senior science advisor of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense and professor emeritus of the University of Minnesota.
Speaking on behalf of IFT, Dr. Busta believes that the overarching goal of the FDA must be to protect the public from food-borne illness and food-associated hazards. IFT believes that food safety must be built into food products from the beginning. To achieve this, food manufacturers must take responsibility for ensuring food safety through management systems that address facilities, processes, and products. Food safety should have the commitment of top management and include adequate employee training in line with effective regulations.
IFT strongly supports risk-based approaches in efforts to ensure food safety and believes in HACCP as a vital component of food safety management. IFT also believes in the critical nature of HACCP prerequisites such as good agricultural practices [GAPs] and good manufacturing practices [GMPs], which are especially important in the control of hazards for which no critical control points [CCPs] exist.
In addition to food safety in products from the onset and employing food safety management, IFT recommends the following: