Oral

Food and water contamination affects hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, causing sickness, hospitalization and even death. The food industry, the government that inspects industry and consumers that prepare foods all have a part in improving food safety and reducing food-related illness. This session presents surveys, in-depth interviews, public record reviews and broad Institute of Medicine evaluations of the state of the U.S. food safety system, including inspections protocols, facility registries. Consumer’s awareness of their risk to food-borne pathogen exposure in commonly consumed foods, frozen entrees, will be reviewed. The session will round out with a review the environmental impact of concentrated dairy production on local ground water quality in the Central Valley, California and regulations that could lessen dairy production’s impact on the community’s local groundwater.

Session Objectives: 1. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food safety program. 2. Explain accuracy food producer’s adherence to the FDA’s food facility registry guidelines. 3. Describe the FDA’s inspections processes, and their past performance in identifying and rectifying food facility violations. 4. Explain consumer’s common misconceptions about food safety issues in frozen meat entrée preparation. 5. Describe how improved regulations could lessen impact of concentrated dairy production on groundwater quality.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH)