Restaurant industry members — who stayed out of the headlines during the recent salmonella outbreak that led to nine deaths and caused nearly 700 people to fall ill — are enthusiastically embracing recently unveiled efforts to toughen the nation’s food safety laws.
President Barack Obama, prompted by the enormity of the outbreak, said in mid-March he would create a designated group to advise him on ways to strengthen the country’s food safety laws and inspection capabilities shortly after the House and Senate began considering bills intended to do likewise.
Earlier this month, the Senate introduced the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, which seeks broader federal powers to inspect food processed domestically and imported to the United States. Sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., the bill calls for $825 million in funding to increase the numbers of inspectors and inspection frequency.
Afew days later, the House of Representatives pitched its own bill, the Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards and Targeting, or FEAST, Act. Reps. Jim Costa, D-Calif., and Adam Putnam, R-Fla., introduced the legislation, which also aims to bolster what for years has been called an inadequately staffed inspection system.
Donna Garren, Ph.D., vice president of health and safety regulatory affairs at the National Restaurant Association, said she's now learning some of the specifics of the two new bills on Capital Hill and she views them as productive. She said a combination of NRA members and staffers are working closely with legislators to ensure the bills contain such desired goals as product traceability, and mandatory and more frequent inspections of both domestically produced and imported products.
“We have an expert group in the quality-assurance and food safety areas, as well as our federal regulations team helping with this," Garren said. "Food safety is a priority for us because we need to maintain the confidence of our customers. This is great to be at the table with various senators and members of congress to try and make sure this never happens again.”
In the past four months, nine people have died and nearly 700 others were poisoned after eating foods containing salmonella-tainted peanut products made by Peanut Corp. of America, headquartered in Blakely, Ga. According to published reports, the product recall has affected thousands of food products made by at least 225 U.S. companies and 25 others overseas.
After the tainted food was traced back to PCA's plants, federal inspectors examined those facilities and found filthy conditions, including rodent infestations in the company’s Texas plant. A Senate investigation in early February found PCA employees had notified company president Stewart Parnell of multiple problems, including salmonella contamination, but that Parnell insisted on shipping the contaminated products. When questioned by a Senate panel on Feb. 11, Parnell took the Fifth Amendment.
Garren predicted the recall resulting from the salmonella outbreak will be “one of the largest” in U.S. history once all the numbers are in. As of March 10, thousands of products containing peanuts processed by PCA — many dating back to 2007 — had been recalled and listed on the NRA's website, and she said additional foods were being added daily.
Garren called it unfortunate that such a massive event “had to happen to generate new regulatory controls that we clearly need. … This event indicates how complex our industry is—that what's made by a very small company could have such a large impact on the entire food industry.”
Before PCA went bankrupt and closed this year, it produced less than 1 percent of all peanut products in the United States, but its distribution to a multitude of manufacturers ensured the widespread contamination, said National Peanut Board spokeswoman Lindsay Spencer.
“Products produced in their plant are sold to a lot of different companies, so a lot of companies were proactive … and went ahead and recalled their own products just to be safe,” Spencer said. “In the grand scheme of things, it was a small incident that got a lot bigger than anyone ever imagined.”
Both Spencer and Garren said they had not received word of any restaurants linked to sales of contaminated products. Garren said the NRA has learned of members being proactive and discarding product as a safeguard, but shared no specifics.
Among the highest-profile restaurant companies to dump peanut products proactively was Seattle-based Starbucks, which temporarily pulled all its packaged foods containing peanut butter following the FDA's Jan. 20 warning of the salmonella outbreak. In a statement emailed to Nation's Restaurant News, a Starbucks spokesperson said the chain confirmed in late January that its peanut-flavored foods don't contain ingredients made by PCA, and that it's working to return those foods to its stores gradually.
Broomfield, Colo.-based Noodles and Co. uses peanut products on its Asian-inspired menu, but spokeswoman Jill Preston said the 205-unit chain also confirmed none of its ingredients are produced by PCA.
“We haven't had to throw out any products,” she said. “All the items in our restaurants that contain peanuts, which are a few, are safe.”
Calls to several other chains were not returned, and Spencer said chains she attempted to talk to on behalf of the Peanut Board also declined to talk on the record. She said many restaurant chains called the board seeking advice on how to handle the situation and hoping to ensure they hadn't purchased tainted product.
“They've been very understanding, but obviously concerned for their customers,” said Spencer, whose group represents peanut farmers. “A lot of restaurant companies have shown us they really do their work and know where their products come from. Everyone is really being proactive on this.”
