Journal of Environmental Law & Litigation : Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 029-108 : Integrating Stakeholder Roles in Food Production, Marketing, and Safety Systems: An Evolving Multi-Jurisdictional Approach
| dc.contributor.author | Endres, A. Brian | |
| dc.contributor.author | Johnson, Nicholas R. | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2011-07-21T21:52:35Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2011-07-21T21:52:35Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2011 | |
| dc.description | 80 pages | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Evaluating prospects for reform require an understanding of the current system and its constituents—especially the agencies subject to change. Accordingly, Part I provides a brief overview of the historical development of the food safety system in the United States and an exploration of the split in regulatory authority between the two primary food safety agencies—the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This division of responsibility among government agencies adds to the difficulty of regulating the diverse food supply chain—an issue analyzed in Part I in greater detail and throughout this Article. Part II explores the first of this Article’s two discussions of recent examples of food safety failures within this multiagency jurisdictional environment—fresh-cut leafy greens contamination. In 2006, several hundred people fell ill after consuming bagged spinach contaminated with E. coli. In the prior ten years, there were twelve documented outbreaks of E. coli in leafy greens. But rather than addressing the structural issues leading to the food safety lapse, the FDA issued draft guidelines. Meanwhile, the processing industry organized a voluntary marketing agreement to safeguard against future outbreaks while retailers incorporated private “super-metrics” standards into their supply contracts. At the federal level, a group of large processors proposed the creation of a national marketing agreement, which would incorporate some disease-prevention measures. Although the USDA has not finalized the proposed marketing agreement, some aspects of the Food Safety Modernization Act may address safety issues in leafy green production and processing. In 2010, more than 1900 people were struck with Salmonella from shell eggs, prompting the largest egg recall in history. Unfortunately, this was not a new food safety issue, but one the government had grappled with for more than two decades without success. The lack of progress in addressing the issue stemmed from the failure of multiple government agencies—the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) in the USDA, and the FDA in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—to coordinate responsibilities to ensure the safety and quality of eggs and egg products. Accordingly, Part III analyzes the shell egg regulatory regime in light of the most recent food safety failure. This Article concludes with a comparative analysis of the government and private industry responses to the repeated instances of food borne illness in fresh-cut greens and shell eggs. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | This research was supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project No. ILLU-470-309. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | 26 J. ENVTL. L. & LITIG. 29 (2011) | en_US |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1049-0280 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1794/11444 | |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.publisher | University of Oregon School of Law | en_US |
| dc.subject | Food safety | |
| dc.subject | Food security -- United States | |
| dc.title | Journal of Environmental Law & Litigation : Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 029-108 : Integrating Stakeholder Roles in Food Production, Marketing, and Safety Systems: An Evolving Multi-Jurisdictional Approach | en_US |
| dc.title.alternative | Integrating Stakeholder Roles in Food Production, Marketing, and Safety Systems: An Evolving Multi-Jurisdictional Approach | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |