Egg Safety Efforts Public and Private
Egg safety initiatives are under way in the public and private sectors in the wake of a nationwide egg Salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 1,800 people and has been linked to a pair of farms in Iowa.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is primarily responsible for egg safety but has a limited number of inspectors, plans to train USDA egg graders how to catch potential bacterial problems at egg farms and to conduct inspections.
FDA previously announced plans to inspect every major farm in the nation, starting with operations that have had past trouble with government officials. Sixteen inspections had been carried out by midmonth. The agency expects to conduct about 600 inspections in the next 14 months..jpg)
The Des Moines Register reported that the USDA and FDA have been working on ways to better coordinate since shortly after President Obama took office in January 2009. USDA and FDA officials have been meeting to iron out details of how they will work together.
Meanwhile, the Register quoted Howard Magwire, vice president of government relations for the United Egg Producers. The trade group is developing safety standards for the industry that would go beyond federal regulations, Magwire said.
United Egg Producers is developing industry standards that will mirror the FDA's production rules and go a step further by requiring participating producers to vaccinate all hens against Salmonella, the newspaper said. Because of contamination that the food agency found in feed at one of the Iowa operations, the producers' group also is considering writing sanitation standards for feed mills, Magwire said.
The group is consulting with the FDA in writing the standards and plans to have the basics of the program ready for the organization's board in January, he said.
The egg Salmonella outbreak caused by Wright County Egg and HIllandale Farms of Iowa remains under investigation by the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), FDA, USDA and several state agencies. An egg claims center has been established for members of the public who have been sickened in the outbreak and wish to join egg litigation spearheaded by law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A. The firm is one of the few in the country practicing extensively in the area of foodborne illness litigation and we have collected millions for victims of food poisoning. To contact an egg Salmonella lawyer at PritzkerOlsen, call 1-888-377-8900 (Toll Free) or complete the contact form on the side of this Web page.
