Group1 1 Essay Example For Students

Group1 1 Essay OUR FOOD SYSTEMAfter a long hard day of work you sit down in your comfortable recliner and open up your favorite snack. But when you reach into grab a piece, you pull out a dead bug. Suddenly many thoughts come into your mind, you wonder how did the bug get there and was it dead or alive. Is it harmful or carry a disease. You ask yourself did the bug come from the United States or another country and where was your snack made? As all these questions come into your head, you wonder who can give you the answers. Fortunately, the government thought about these conflicts and established several governmental agencies to protect Americans in food safety. These agencies are responsible for inspecting, labeling, marketing, and developing modern safety systems to test foods for diseases and bacteria. They also work with the local and state governmental agencies, farmers, and companies to ensure cleaner air, safer food, and pure water to protect the health and safety of Americans. The following agencies; Center for Disease Control (CDC), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are the most significant federal agencies to help consumers make better choices in the products they buy. All of them have a particular role in food safety, and by working together they make the foods we buy safer for consumption. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is a government agency that was formed in 1862 by President Abraham Lincoln. The purpose of forming the agency was to promote the rise of commercial farming. Many other Acts dealing with agriculture were drawn up over the years and eventually in 1939 the New Department of Agriculture was formed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed the reform of the department through because of the Great Depression was having such a great effect on the farming industry. The new Department was formed from all of the Acts and old organizations within the Department and from the exit of a few agencies out of the Department. The United States Department of Agriculture in which we look at today has grown and evolved into a much more direct and consumer friendly government agency. The duties of the USDA is to research, regulate, and educate. The U.S. is always researching new farming techniques and different farming products that are involved in the whole process. They also regulate all farming products, to make sure that they are safe for the consumption by you and I.There are thousands of inspectors across the U.S. regulating the farms and factories in which the food is sold to. Another duty of the USDA is to educate and inform the public of food safety. Because of the scares of improperly prepared food, the USDA must inform the public of different diseases that can be found in foods, especially meat and poultry supplies. They ensure that the food is safe, wholesome, unadulterated, and properly labeled and packaged. The way in which they do so is hire thousands of inspectors and veterinarians conduct sla ughterhouse inspections of all carcasses for diseases and other abnormalities. They also conduct processing inspections at plants to ensure proper sanitation and cleanliness. The USDA must also look at the imported food products because of the import-export inspection system. The U.S. has one of, if not the safest food production in the world, so we must regulate everything that comes into the country. Just recently, there was a great example of how great our government is, even with the many shortcomings. President Clinton promised great changes in the inspection Group 1 2process of the nations meat and poultry. On October 7, 1997 President Clinton and Congress passed a bill calling for the increase in meat and poultry inspections and production. This was caused by the big scare this past summer, the outbreak of E coli bacteria in millions of hamburger meat, in a couple of fast-food chains. The inspection process will increase gradually over the next few years. Even though the inspection process has greatly improved, this still does not make it 100% guaranteed that there will not be small cases of outbreaks. The USDA urges you to make sure you properly cook your food, so that the chances decline. The USDA has a great importance in consumer services. The U.S. government wants to look out for everyone across the U.S., the USDA started a Food and Consumer Services (FCS) program. Their purpose is to assist people across the country to ensure that no one will experience or fear hunger. They provide a safety net for people in need. Some of the programs are as followed: Food Stamp Program, Food Distributions for Indians, Supplement Food Programs for women, infants, and children, and School Breakfast Programs. The USDA serves many different purposes, most importantly regulation and education of food safety. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services that deal with food borne diseases. Today food-borne illnesses are getting a lot of press. Every second of every day someone is struck with food poisoning and 33 million suffer each year. There are also approximately 9,000 reported deaths a year. This is because of the unsafe food handling that seems to be becoming an epidemic. There are many different types of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that are either originally found in the food or they are transferred from an outside source, such as who the food was prepared by, that causes the illness (Wardlaw). When a person comes down with an illness that may have been linked to the food they have previously eaten, the CDC deals with the difficult detection of the microbe that may be involved. Looking at the source of the food, time when the symptoms arrived, and how long the illness lasted usually helps to identify the microbe involved. The following information shows some of the characteristics of the major organisms that cause food-borne illnesses. The most commonly found organism to cause food poisoning is salmonella. Salmonella can be spread through three common routes: (1) contaminated eggs and egg products as well as raw meats and chicken, (2) infected food handlers with feces-contaminated hands, and (3) marijuana contaminated with salmonella. The onset of symptoms develop from 5 to 72 hours after ingestion. Salmonella can cause nausea, fever, headache, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. It rarely kills, but the elderly and young are those most at risk. Salmonella is usually treated symptomatically and can be prevented through safe food handling, through cooking of foods, proper refrigeration, and avoiding cross contamination (Marieb). The next most prevalent food-borne illness causing bacteria is staphylococcus. Staph. Can usually be found in nasal passages as well as in skin sores. It can be spread when someone sneezes or coughs over food or handles food while they have open sores on the skin. The toxin that is produced by the organism can develop when the food is left out for a long time at room temperature. The onset of the Staph. Illness occurs 2-6 hours after eating. Symptoms include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, and abdominal cramps that Group1 3last 24-36 hours and also is rarely fatal. Safe food handling, proper food refrigeration and keeping cuts on the skin covered are all good ways of preventing Staph. Infections (Marieb). Illiad EssayImmediately after collecting his data, Wiley let his information be known to the U.S. public, but he was unable to gain widespread support until 1906. Backed by a huge following of irate citizens, the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 was passed. The first act was rather simple-it stated that government has right to control local food and drug traffic that the federal government could not previously control. For 32 years the FDA quietly protected the U.S. consumers, and maintained purity in Americas products. However, they thought that they need more authority than they had. In1938 the Federal, Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act was passed. Under this act, the FDA no longer had to prove knowledge of intent in adulteration cases. Many argued that this gave the FDA complete tyranny. The main duties created by this act are to see that the food we eat is safe and wholesome, the cosmetics we use do not hurt us, medicines are safe and effective. The FDA also protects the countrys blood supply by routinely examining blood banks (1). Also, it ensures that products are labeled truthfully, and with useful information. Along with people, the FDA also regulates food and drugs for pets and farm animals. The FDA consists of 1100 investigators who cover the nations 95,000 FDA-regulated businesses. These inspectors visit about 15,000 facilities per year. Also, they inspect about 80,000 domestic and imported samples for examination by FDA scientists (1). If a company has violated any of the FDAs laws, this company maybe encouraged to correct the problem or recall it from the market. If the company does not cooperate and correct the problem, the FDA can bring them to court and force them to stop selling the product and to have already produced items destroyed. About 3000 items per year are found to be unfit for consumers (1). The FDA is not responsible for doing research when approving new drugs; however, it does study the results done by the manufacturer. Once the drugs have been approved for marketing, the FDA must still collect tens of thousands of reports on that drug each year to monitor for any adverse reactions (1). The Food and Drug Administration is a very controversial department in the U.S. It has been jeered for having too much power and even tyranny. However, if it was not created, we would not know what was in our food and drugs. Overall, the FDA plays a very important and helpful role in our society today, by making our products safe for consumption. Although these agencies serve different departments, their number one purpose is to provide food safety to all Americans and therefore, they must work together at Group 1 6different points in times to meet this very significant goal. One instance in which the FDA, CDC, EPA, and USDA have joined together is the issue of the safety of fruit. Since fruit is usually grown outside on farms it serves the chances of people catching a disease from eating it. For the past several years many illnesses have occurred because of produce. These illnesses include Hepatitis A virus believed to have come from strawberries in Mexico, salmonella in bean sprouts from the Midwest, and Escherichia Coli associated with hamburgers not fully cooked. A few months ago the EPA warned people of Cyclospora, an infection caused from fruits and vegetables. The FDA and the CDC worked together with growers to improve sanitation practices on the farms in Guatemala, while the EPA held a meeting to find more information on cyclospora. The CDC also found the number of Americans becoming ill and gave a report on how to decrease the contamination of fruits (Washington Post, 7/8/97). Another instance in which the EPA, USDA, and the FDA worked together was with the discovery of toxic dioxin found in Tyson Chickens. The chicken was sampled and tested by the USDA and the EPA for dioxin levels, chicken litter, soil, feed, and pesticide use at the Hill Top Farms in Star City (Arkansas Business, 6/16/97). Since the FDA is responsible for the safety of the nations food supply and overlooks all aspects, it often works with the other three federal agencies individually to ensure safety to American consumers. The FDA often communicates with the CDC since foods tend to become contaminated with diseases and make Americans ill. The FDA also works with the CDC in such cases of how to fight germs in soaps, deodorants, toothpaste, and toys using germicidal product, in which both germs and the products can be harmful to the consumer (Orange County Register, 7/16/97). The FDA and the USDA both have the power to inspect, impose grades and standards, and establish rules regarding labeling. In years before the food manufacturers did not want to put nutrition labels on foods because they felt it would take a lot of work, time, and difficulty, but the real reason was it would make consumers aware of substitutes and contents in the foods. The response after labeling was low fat and low sodium foods. Therefore because of the Nutrition and Labeling Act of 1990, which standardized food labels with ingredients, descriptions, and nutrient contents the USDA and the FDA research has shown that Americans are more aware of food contents and ingredients to better their health. The FDA also enforces laws over the EPA in determining the safety of pesticide products and setting tolerance levels for pesticide residues in foods. The FDA also sets guidelines regulating bottled water sold in interstate commerce for human use. The President signed a Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 in August of 1996, which regulated pesticides by the FDA and the EPA to put important public health protection in place, especially for children. The EPA works with the USDA, due to the crops that need to be protected by sprays to prevent them from dying and causing disease. In 1994, the EPA has suggested banning aerial spraying of certain types of herbicides because they were believed to damage crops at a Shoreliani organic vegetable farm and can be hazardous to humans. The USDA recommended the suspended aerial applications of the herbicides until they Group 1 7determined what had happened at Shoreliani. Currently the farm has been closed down so that the EPA may test to see what exactly may be dangerous to the plants (Times-Argus 7/20/97). The CDC will sometimes function with the EPA to study environmental health problems since most diseases can come from the environment, water, and pesticides. The CDC helps to direct and enforce national programs for the prevention and control of diseases transmitted by a host organism.