Egg safety legislation gives industry cause for concern

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Egg safety legislation gives industry cause for concern

 

21/09/2004 - The FDA has proposed an obligatory on-farm Salmonella

control check in order to reduce the risk of Salmonella illnesses

caused by infected eggs.

 

But while the move has been welcomed by the Food Animal Concerns Trust

(FACT) as long overdue, some within the US egg production industry are

worried that the threat of disease is being exaggerated.

 

As the American Egg Board points out, less than one quarter of one per

cent of all foodborne illness can be linked to eggs - and no-one wants

a repeat of what happened in the UK in the late 1980s.

 

The public hysteria over egg safety then still casts a shadow over the

industry. In 1988, the then UK minister for health Edwina Currie

notoriously told the British public that 50 per cent of eggs contained

Salmonella. The announcement cost Currie her job, and devastated the

egg industry. Newell estimates that consumption halved as a result,

and is still battling to recover.

 

" Consumption has been increasing slightly, " said Robert Newell,

marketing manager for major UK egg producer Deans Foods. " We estimate

that average consumption is now 1.86 per person per week, not taking

into account egg usage in other products. But we are nowhere near

where we were 20 years ago. "

 

Nonetheless, pressure groups such as FACT believe that egg-producing

plants have been the missing link in reducing the threat of Salmonella

Enteritidis (SE) poisoning. Existing voluntary on-farm control

programmes, they believe, have been shown to decrease the number of

illnesses, but only little more than half participate.

 

The new plan therefore requires egg farms to conduct an environmental

test of each flock, followed by a series of egg tests if SE is found.

If there are continued positive results, the eggs could not be sold to

consumers as raw shell eggs.

 

" This is a critical component of the agreement that is key to reducing

the number of Salmonella related illnesses, " said FACT executive

director Richard Wood. " Environmental testing on egg farms is

necessary because the SE bacteria can pass from infected chickens into

the egg before the shell is formed. "

 

The proposal includes a new provision that exempts smaller egg farms

with less than 3,000 hens. FACT says that it accepts this exemption

since SE is primarily found on large egg farms. However, the pressure

group believes that continued surveillance and tracebacks of SE

outbreaks is necessary to determine if small farms should also be

included in the plan.

 

" Today's proposal is consistent with the agreement of four years ago

and when fully implemented should reduce the number of Salmonella

illnesses in the US, " said Wood.

 

Nonetheless, the egg industry is concerned about public perceptions of

egg safety. " The chance of encountering an egg contaminated with SE

remains very small, " said Hilary Shallo Thesmar, director of the egg

safety centre. " The possibility of becoming ill from SE can be

eliminated with proper storage and cooking. "

 

Since 1995, the number of illnesses from SE in the US declined 52 per

cent , from an average of 3.88 illnesses per 100,000 people to an

average of 1.85 illnesses per 100,000 people in 2002, according to the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Salmonella Surveillance

System.

 

Numerous procedures have been implemented, such as the rule requiring

eggs to be refrigerated during distribution and storage at retail

stores. That regulation went into effect in June of 2001.

 

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