> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Publisher’s Platform:  What Should Be Done
- URL: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/09/publishers-platform-what-should-be-done/
- Published: 2010-09-27T01:59:03.000Z
- Updated: 2010-09-27T01:59:03.000Z
- Author: Bill Marler
- Tags: Opinion & Contributed Articles, reform, S. 510, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-25 09:53

I spent most of last week in the “other Washington.” It all does make you wonder, as one Congressman quipped some time ago: “Who needs Al-Qaeda when you have got E. coli?” What would happen if we stopped the petty bickering and actually did something about food safety like:

Growers:

1\. Develop and implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point-based systems (and if you can’t have HACCP on the farm, say HACCP-based);

2\. Conduct microbial testing on soils, water and product on a routine basis;

3\. Develop a product coding system down to the unit package level (bag, clamshell) allowing rapid trace back;

4\. Support mandatory regulation of the produce industry at federal, state and local levels; and,

5\. Support research to determine the critical values for the safety of food, water, air and soils in farming operations.

Manufacturers:

1\. Improve Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point systems;

2\. Create a culture of food safety and sanitation within the firm;

3\. Institute a profit-sharing model to engage employees fully in the health and well-being of the organization;

4\. Require all suppliers of raw materials to have HACCP systems in place; and,

5\. Audit yourself and your suppliers.

Restaurants:

1\. Train and certify managers and train employees in food safety;

2\. Create a culture of food safety within the firm;

3\. Provide frontline management with the authority, not just the responsibility, for food safety;

4\. Provide a line-item budget for food safety; and,

5\. Provide accessible health insurance for employees.

Regulators:

1\. Build win-win industry partnerships while maintaining autonomy to independently protect public health;

2\. Provide an outsourced system to maintain inspection schedules, shift cost to industry;

3\. Require all operators of all food-related businesses to have a valid, verifiable food safety management system;

4\. Develop and implement science-based auditing techniques moving away from the poke-and-sniff inspection models; and,

5\. Apply risk assessment to identify high-risk operations for more intensive interventions and strengthen surveillance.

Consumers:

1\. Support consumer activist organizations that base their platforms on science and public health protection;

2\. Become more knowledgeable about food safety;

3\. Use a thermometer when cooking and do not undercook or consume raw high-risk foods such as ground beef, seafood, and chicken;

4\. Demand that restaurants be graded for food safety and that the grades be posted; and,

5\. Support your federal, state and local governments’ efforts in food safety regulation and vote for candidates who value public health protection.

I know, this is not perfect and there are things to complain about, but it is better than doing nothing, which is what we are doing now.