Food Safety Council Meets to Review E. Coli Summit Progress

The Beef Industry Food Safety Council (BIFSCo) Steering Committee met in Denver last week to continue the momentum created at the checkoff-funded E. coli Summit nearly 90 days ago. 

At the meeting, BIFSCo members reviewed the "Interventions, Best Practices and Research Plan" across industry sectors: cattle production, fabrication, processing, retail and foodservice.  The more than 200 Summit participants have been drafting and editing these documents since January. 

The Plan is expected to begin rolling out in 45 days and will serve as a road map for the sectors in reducing E. coli O157:H7.  It will be available online at www.bifsco.org and free to the entire industry when it is complete. 

"This Plan will be a 'living document' for the entire beef production chain.  It will set out what we know to date as effective interventions, best practices and promising research.  Each industry sector and individual operation will be able to look to it for the most up-to-date understanding of how to best reduce the incidence of this pathogen," said James O. Reagan, Ph.D., vice president, research and knowledge management, National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA).  NCBA manages checkoff-funded beef safety programs on behalf of the Cattlemen's Beef Board.

BIFSCo, whose members include Summit working group chairs and other Summit participants, will update this plan on an ongoing basis, as science sheds light on new pathogen-control solutions.

An executive summary of the Beef Industry E. coli Summit was published shortly after the January meeting.  It can be viewed at www.beef.org under "Research." 

BIFSCo members have been sharing the executive summary with members of their sectors.  It was formally presented at several meetings, including the Food Safety Summit held in Washington, D.C., the National Meat Association convention and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Feeder Council.  The report also has been shared with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"This initiative is becoming the principle platform for E. coli management because it has been able to connect individual sector plans and facilitate expectation sharing across sectors.  We are pleased USDA has recognized the industry's commitment and leadership, and we are particularly encouraged by the Secretary's interest in investing in research to expedite identification of new and effective tools," said Rosemary Mucklow, executive director of National Meat Association.

At the meeting in Denver, BIFSCo members also discussed the possibility of creating a database to house E. coli data throughout the chain.  Individual company data would be blinded and confidential.  While development of such a database is in the preliminary discussion stage, participants anticipate that it would be used to track pathogen-control progress overall and would allow individual operations to evaluate themselves against a benchmark.

"We continue to look for ways to accomplish our database vision.  An industry-wide database would truly improve our ability to understand and thereby manage O157:H7," said Tim Biela, vice president of food safety and quality assurance, Texas American Foodservice.

Created in 1997, BIFSCo is committed to developing industry-wide, science-based strategies to solve the problems of food borne pathogens in beef.  Representing industry sector leadership, the following people participated in last week's BIFSCo meeting: Tim Biela, vice president of food safety and quality assurance, Texas American Foodservice; Paul Clayton, vice president, export services, U.S. Meat Export Federation; Mike Engler, Ph.D., president, Cactus Feeders; Kerri Harris, executive director, International HACCP Alliance; Jim Hodges, president, American Meat Institute Foundation; Curtis Kastner, director, Food Science Institute, Kansas State University; Rosemary Mucklow, executive director, National Meat Association; James O. Reagan, Ph.D., vice president, research and knowledge management, NCBA; Michelle Rossman, associate director for beef safety, NCBA; Dave Theno, Ph.D., senior vice president, quality and logistics, Jack in the Box Inc.; Craig Wilson, director of food safety and quality assurance, Costco Wholesale.

This initiative is funded by beef producers through their $1-per-head checkoff program and is managed for the Cattlemen's Beef Board and state beef councils by the NCBA.  The national beef checkoff is administered by the Cattlemen's Beef Promotion and Research Board, subject to USDA approval.  This 108-member board is appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to oversee the collection of the $1-per-head checkoff, certify state beef councils, implement the provisions of the Federal Order establishing the checkoff and evaluate the effectiveness of checkoff programs.