The Road to Hell is Paved with the Processed Food Safety Act

Which would you rather eat: food that is uncontaminated, or food contaminated with pathogens and then irradiated or doused in chemicals? Seems like an easy question, right? Well if the Processed Food Safety Act of 2009 passes, the latter will be the norm.

Under this bill, introduced last November by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), all meat and poultry processors and handlers must either certify that “each ingredient in the meat or meat food product … has undergone a pathogen reduction treatment” or else that the processor has tested and confirmed that there are “no verifiable traces of pathogens” in the finished product and every ingredient.

No pathogens, that’s good, right? You’d think so, except that if you look again you’ll realize that as long as processors give their meat a “pathogen reduction treatment,” they don’t have to test their meat at all, meaning they don’t have to run the risk of a dirty test and a recall. Just douse it with radiation and a chlorine bath and all will be well as far as food safety officials are concerned!

These treatments are already being used and promoted by Big Ag because it means that they don’t have to be concerned with producing a clean, healthy, disease-free product: just tack a quick fix on the end of the whole process! It’s a get-out-of-jail-free card for unsanitary factory farming methods.

And, as for the testing, Phyllis Entis — a food safety microbiologist who writes eFoodAlert.com — says that “even the best test method is likely to miss low-level contamination of an ingredient or finished food,” resulting in an entirely false sense of security while still allowing dangerous pathogens into our food supply.

Senator Feinstein’s heart is in the right place here: She's trying to improve food safety in this country. Unfortunately, her solution is tailor-made for industrial agriculture at the expense of the small farmers who are trying to avoid contamination altogether. Current regulations make it hard enough for small farmers to process the meat they raise and sell it to consumers; this bill would likely put many of them out of business. Most would be unwilling to adulterate their food with chemicals and radiation, or simply unable to afford it, and even those who are confident they could pass pathogen testing without treatments are unlikely to be able to take on that huge extra expense. For an industrial slaughterhouse on the other hand, it’s all a drop in the bucket.

The good news is that this bill is still in committee, and there is time to convince Congress to take real action on food safety. Contact your Senators now and ask them to oppose the Processed Food Safety Act. Particularly if you are a California voter, call Senator Feinstein and explain just where this bill will lead us. Industrial methods are the problem, not the solution, and trying to put a band-aid over dirty food doesn’t protect anyone’s health.

Photo credit: Thomas R. Stegelmann