AFFI Weighs in on Safety of Frozens
In Presentation on New US Legislation

Traceability of ingredients cited as a key issue in media attack on frozen food industry over contaminated pot pies, and in proposed regulation of food supply chain.

Kraig R. Naasz, president and ceo of the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), has given qualified support to new food safety legislation in recent testimony before the Subcommittee on Health of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

“AFFI is committed to being a leader in food safety, which is our highest priority,” Naasz stated in his testimony. “We want food to be as safe as possible and thereby engender high levels of consumer confidence in food products. AFFI looks forward to working with the Committee to shape the future of food safety and to ensure the well-being of American consumers.”

AFFI is supportive of several provisions in Chairman Henry A. Waxman’s draft legislation including requiring food companies to develop and implement written food safety plans, requiring food companies to monitor the compliance of their suppliers with food safety standards, and giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clear authority to regulate fresh produce.

While AFFI supports the general direction of the draft legislation, Naasz said, it wants to work with committee members and staff to modify provisions such as traceability requirements, country of origin labeling requirements and user fees. And lurking in the background is a controversial front-page story in The New York Times May 15 that accused the frozen food industry of abdicating its responsibility for the safety of frozen entrees after an outbreak of salmonella two years ago from Banquet pot pies.

“ConAgra – which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label – decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step,” the Times piece complained. “The ‘food safety’ instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: ‘Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots’.”

“Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients,” claimed the Times. “In this case, ConAgra could not pinpoint which of the more than 25 ingredients in its pies was carrying salmonella. Other companies do not even know who is supplying their ingredients, let alone if those suppliers are screening the items for microbes and other potential dangers, interviews and documents show.”

Story Falls Short, Says AFFI

“Your May 15 front-page article, ‘For Frozen Entrees, Heat-and-Eat Isn’t Enough,” doesn’t fully depict the frozen food industry’s commitment to product safety. Simply stated, food safety is the frozen food industry’s top priority,” Naasz wrote in a letter dated May 15 but published six days later. “Frozen food producers strive every day to ensure that their products are safe for preparation and ultimately consumption,” he wrote. “The American Frozen Food Institute has worked diligently with retailers and regulators to provide clear microwave cooking instructions and enhance good manufacturing practices.”

Presumably ConAgra must have done something to prevent a recurrence of salmonella from its pot pies besides advising consumers to carry out a “kill step.” (When the company itself tried it, according to the Times, “the vegetables turned to mush.”) The issue seems to be traceability of the ingredients. On that score, Naasz had this to say during his testimony:

“We are deeply concerned with the draft legislation’s traceability requirements, and we believe that these provisions need significant revision. Although the goals behind these provisions are laudable, as written the traceability requirements are simply impracticable and could not be implemented by industry. The food supply chain is extremely complex, and there are no current technologies in existence that would enable manufacturers to fulfill the requirements called for by the draft bill.

“We suggest that the legislation make information gathering activities the centerpiece of the traceability provision and a clear prerequisite to any governmental rule making. Such information gathering is absolutely necessary to determine what traceability actions are feasible, practicable and useful. We also suggest that the international standard under GS1, which would create a common coding system, should be acknowledged and facilitated by the legislation. We live in a global economy, and US systems will thrive if they reflect what is going on in the world around us.”

In his letter to the Times, Naasz stressed that the industry isn’t trying to pass the buck. “While food safety is a shared responsibility among food producers, government agencies and consumers, we recognize that the primary responsibility rests with food producers,” he said. “Providing consumers with safe and nutritious products is a responsibility frozen food producers stake their names and reputations on.”