How safe is our food supply? Each year the media report what appears to be growing concern related to illness caused by the food consumed by Americans. These food borne illnesses are caused by pathogenic microorganisms, pesticide residues, and food additives. Recent actions taken at the federal, state, and local levels in response to the increase in reported incidences of food borne illnesses point to the need to evaluate the food safety system in the United States. This book assesses the effectiveness of the current food safety system and provides recommendations on changes needed to ensure an effective science-based food safety system. Ensuring Safe Food discusses such important issues as: What are the primary hazards associated with the food supply? What gaps exist in the current system for ensuring a safe food supply? What effects do trends in food consumption have on food safety? What is the impact of food preparation and handling practices in the home, in food services, or in production operations on the risk of food borne illnesses? What organizational changes in responsibility or oversight could be made to increase the effectiveness of the food safety system in the United States? Current concerns associated with microbiological, chemical, and physical hazards in the food supply are discussed. The book also considers how changes in technology and food processing might introduce new risks. Recommendations are made on steps for developing a coordinated, unified system for food safety. The book also highlights areas that need additional study. Ensuring Safe Food will be important for policymakers, food trade professionals, food producers, food processors, food researchers, public health professionals, and consumers.

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Written for graduate students or college seniors, Food Safety: Theory and Practice emphasizes a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to food safety. It covers important topics related to the prevention of foodborne illnesses and diseases with a “farm-to-fork” perspective. Each chapter starts with a set of learning objectives for the student and ends with a list of important references and websites for further study and research. Scientific principles that underpin food safety are introduced, and terminology is explained to facilitate comprehension by the student. In keeping with current trends, risk analysis and food safety management are stressed throughout the textbook. The writing style is concise and to the point, and the book contains hundreds of references, figures, and tables. Extremely well organized, this book can serve as the primary text for a food safety course, or it can serve as a background text for more specialized courses in food safety. Key topics include: Risk and hazard analysis of goods - covers risk assessment and hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) evaluations of food safety. Safety management of the food supply - provides a farm-to-fork overview of food safety, emphasizing the risks associated with each step in the food supply. Food safety laws, regulations, enforcement, and responsibilities - describes the major provisions, relationship, and hierarchy of laws and guidelines designed to ensure a safe food supply. The pivotal role of food sanitation/safety inspectors - including the interpretation of standards, problem solving and decision making, education of the food handling staff, and participation in foodborne illness outbreak investigations.