Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

March-April 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 2

BSE, security topics at OFPA Convention

By Dave Edmark, AAES/Food Safety Consoritium

The BSE crisis resulted in the U.S. losing beef markets in 21 nations, which must be regained one at a time. Japan was the market that the U.S. most wanted to recover and did so in October 2004, but not without long and detailed negotiations. More work remains to implement the new agreement, explained Gary Smith of the Colorado State University animal sciences faculty.

Smith, speaking to the Ozark Food Processors Association 99th annual convention on March 30, discussed his role as a member of technical committees representing the U.S. in the talks with Japan. He currently serves on a U.S. Department of Agriculture team working with Japan to develop a program to implement resumption of the beef trade.

The OFPA convention, co-hosted by the Department of Food Science, this year attracted 91 exhibitors with 550 people attending. Thirteen University of Arkansas students were awarded scholarships sponsored by OFPA and its members.

OFPA officers elected for 2005-2006 are Steve Crider of Gerber Products Co., president; Justin Morris of the Division of Agriculture’s Institute of Food Science and Engineering, executive vice president; Renee Threlfall, IFSE, secretary; and Mike Heilman, IFSE, treasurer.

Smith, in his keynote address at the convention, said, "We're now working on a national animal identification system after the Japanese wanted to know how we identify them," Smith said. "We haven't (been identifying them), so Japan showed us how they do it. It will use electronic ear tags and global positioning systems, But we're six or seven years away from that."

The U.S. lost the markets after December 2003 when the first nation's first BSE case was found. Recovering the markets was vital, Smith said, "because we were selling as our top beef export items lots of things that very few of us eat." Beef tongues, for example, are rarely consumed in the U.S. and sell here for only 22 cents per kilogram. But tongues are popular in China and can sell for $9.90 a kilogram.

Smith traced the U.S. experience with BSE to 1989, when federal officials sought to guard against the disease by banning the import of cattle and beef from the European Union. The ban had originally been proposed in 1987 but was held up for two years.

"Unfortunately, we were our own worst enemy," Smith said. "Between 1987 and 1989, Canada and the U.S. brought 449 cattle from the United Kingdom to the U.S., half of which were never found. Almost certainly, the cases that we have here originated from cows that were brought here between 1987 and 1989."

The U.S. also began surveillance programs in the 1990s by testing brain stems of cows that acted odd or were dead on arrival at rendering plants, Smith said. Feeding of meat and bone meal to ruminants was banned. But by May 2003 Canada reported the first North American case of BSE and the first U.S. case occurred nine months later.

While BSE is a naturally occurring food safety problem, processors are also watching out for food security problems that can be prevented. Rod Wheeler, food security head for the Food Products Association (formerly the National Food Processors Association), told the OFPA that the industry is working with government and law enforcement agencies to stop intentional contamination before it happens.

The FPA has a food security council of about 50 security directors from corporations throughout the nation, Wheeler explained. Its food security alliance includes food safety and quality assurance personnel.

In exercises to determine their level of preparation, Wheeler said, the participants have found there is not enough communication between government and industry nor is there enough between government agencies themselves.

In a hypothetical incident, he said, "Public health comes in and says, 'We're in charge,' because it's a food-related incident. So one person dies, so now you have an FBI agent and it's a criminal investigation. You have an epidemiologist come in. So where does industry come in? We need to talk through these things now, go through these scenarios and establish protocols before an incident occurs."

Nancy Nagle, director of product development for Wal-Mart Stores, said the emphasis on security extends to her company's relations with its suppliers. She said new suppliers are subject to a facility audit.

"We want to know what our quality assurance programs are and what your food safety programs are. We've recently added what are your food security programs. We want to know whether somebody can just walk into a plant and wander around or if you've got perimeter fencing."