For Food Safety, US Needs More Workers, Funding

Will Jobs Be Created as Obama Moves to Secure Nation's Food Supply?

Oct 2, 2009

Every few years there's a public health crisis over unsafe food and preventable deaths. As the US mobilizes to update the nation's food safety, jobs will be created, too.

There's broad consensus that the regulatory system protecting the nation’s food is as full of holes as an old fish net. With people's lives being shattered just from eating a burger (as documented on the front page of the New York Times), the nation needs a more sophisticated, 21st-century food safety system. Part of what's lacking is a huge cadre of old-fashioned sleuths, the food inspectors who look at the color of the meat, sniff the odor of the fish, and check the firmness of the produce. And, new kinds of food safety jobs should be created, as well. Some will require training and certification. With all the issues facing the US, though, is food safety a priority? The answer may be yes, because the food safety issues marries public health and national security.

Generally, it's been bad luck, human error (or, sometimes, greed) at the root of food safety disasters: E. Coli in spinach. Chili “hot” with botulism. Melamine in baby formula. Contaminated jalapeño peppers. Most recently, in early 2009, it was contaminated peanut butter that transformed a comfort food into a source of panic. Salmonella in peanut butter that was detected but not reported resulted in 9 deaths, at least 650 cases of illness, including many children, in 40 states, and the recall of more than 800 products. Each time a deadly bacteria is found in a popular food item, months of public discussion ensue about whether there’s a strong enough safety net for our national food supply chain. Food safety is a major public heath concern.

Lurking in the background is something more sinister. Those who worry about such things voice concern that a terrorist attack could focus on the integrity of the nation’s food supply. Since 9/11, the US Department of Homeland Security has been involved in monitoring imported foods.

Changes in American Eating Habits, Plus a Huge Food Sector, Mean Need for Food Safety Jobs

Americans cook at home less frequently, and enjoy a more varied diet, thanks to imports, than in previous generations. After all, there was once a time when kiwis were exotic.

The US food sector is valued at over $640 billion, not including imported foods. No question, this is a huge industry — and there's a lot of food to inspect.

Senator Tom Harkin in a September 2009 presentation to the Pew Charitable Trusts said domestic food safety is “far worse” than it was three decades ago. Then, he said, the US “had 70,000 food processors and the FDA inspectors made only 35,000 visits a year to cover these processors."

Now, he said, we have “150,000 food processors, twice as many plants, and the problem has grown far worse. Today FDA inspectors make 6,700 visits each year, only one-fifth as many visits as was the case three decades ago.”

Food Safety System Overhaul Will Impact Government, Industry, Agriculture, Retail

To date, the effort to ensure a safe domestic food supply from farm to table is fragmented, and not a "system" at all.

Legislation that paves the way for a 21st-century modernization of this vital system calls for a single food safety agency, more frequent and rigorous inspections of restaurants, farms, and food processing/manufacturing facilities, annual inspections of high-risk facilities, and enhanced computerization of information.

Feeding the nation involves multiple sectors of the economy — agriculture, food manufacturing and processing, shipping, retail and the restaurant industry.

Ensuring safety is an interdisciplinary task. It involves the US Department of Agriculture, state agriculture departments, and departments of health at all levels, plus private companies, and non-profits.

How Many Food Safety Inspector Jobs Might Be Created?

Public health lobbyists are pushing for the creation of a new domestic food safety corps of thousands of new inspectors. The scale of the problem suggests a potentially sizeable expansion of food inspector jobs.

It's Not Just Inspecting Dead Cows: Food Safety Jobs Run the Gamut from Data to Research

Being a food inspector, for instance in a meat processing plant, can be tough, dirty, hands-on work.

But a broad food safety initiative will generate other jobs, too: number-crunchers and survey researchers; epidemiologists, scientists and laboratory assistants; communications professionals, graphic designers, and administrators.

Info on Food Safety Jobs

Many food safety jobs exist at the state government level. Practical job training and certification information may be found through the Association of Food and Drug Officials or state Departments of Agriculture.

The US needs vast changes to ensure the safety of the food chain from the farm to processing plants to supermarkets to the home or restaurant. Voters should pay attention to the progress of the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. Those seeking jobs, with an interest in food, agriculture, public health or national security, might investigate opportunities in what promises to be a major makeover in the nation's food safety system.

The copyright of the article For Food Safety, US Needs More Workers, Funding in Health Field is owned by Ellen Freudenheim. Permission to republish For Food Safety, US Needs More Workers, Funding in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.