NCCR Welcomes FDA Report on Food Safety

shearmanc@nrf.com 

NCCR Welcomes FDA Report on Food Safety

Washington, October 22, 2010 – The National Council of Chain Restaurants welcomed a new Food and Drug Administration report issued today that shows restaurants and other segments of the food services industry have made significant improvements in food safety over the past five years.

“Food safety is the highest priority of chain restaurants,” NCCR President Jack Whipple said. “This report found that restaurants are getting better at meeting food safety requirements even as those standards are being strengthened. Our nation’s restaurant chains conduct extensive food safety training for their employees and have elaborate food safety systems tailored to each type of restaurant. The CDC has even praised restaurant safety practices for protecting customers against the spread of salmonella in the recent egg recall. We are confident that chain restaurants are leading the way, but we are constantly striving to raise the bar for the protection of our workers and our customers.”

“NCCR and its members take this report very seriously and want to work with the FDA to further ensure food safety in the interest of public health,” Whipple said. “We want to encourage a coordinated effort by the FDA to engage vested and strategic industry groups to support continuous improvement in restaurant food safety.”

The FDA today released its Retail Risk Factor Survey and 2010 Trends Report, a study produced every five years to assess the state of food safety at restaurants and elsewhere. The report indicated that food safety has improved since the last report, but cited a number of areas where improvement is still needed.

Among other recommendations, the report called for more certified food protection managers in U.S. restaurants. Whipple said the importance of such managers is one of the priorities long recognized by the NCCR Food Safety Task Force.

“The presence of a certified food protection manager is common practice in chain restaurants,” Whipple said. “We support strengthening Food Code requirements so that may be said of the industry as a whole.”

Whipple said NCCR was frustrated that some of the non-compliance issues found in the FDA report involved failure to meet standards that have been recommended by the FDA but not adopted in local health codes. NCCR believes Congress should amend the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to require all state and local jurisdictions to adopt the FDA Model Food Code, and that state and local authorities should do so voluntarily in the meantime.

“A single Food Code would help avoid confusion by the industry and local inspectors,” Whipple said. “Uniform national standards would ensure that all jurisdictions operate under rules that are risk-based and supported by the latest science in the interest of public health. The lack of national standards is a hindrance to improving food safety.”

While all restaurants strive for food safety, Whipple said the standardization of concept-specific procedures and thorough training of workers that allow restaurant chains to efficiently deliver consistent high quality meals and dining experiences at tens of thousands of locations across multiple states have made it possible for chain restaurants to develop and implement some of the highest food safety standards in the industry. As part of chain restaurants’ commitment to the issue, NCCR formed its Food Safety Task Force more than 20 years ago to help member companies develop and share many of the practices and procedures in common use today.

The report listed a number of areas where the FDA believes improvements are needed by many restaurants, but NCCR noted that most chain restaurants have already adopted policies and procedures to address the concerns:

·         Equipment sanitation – Equipment is systematically washed, rinsed, sanitized with appropriate sanitizing products or heat, and dried before reuse.

In addition, chain restaurants have made a priority of identifying food safety risk factors and developing processes for measuring food safety compliance through both internal and third-party measurements. Restaurants have taken steps such as color-coding cleaning tools and areas of the restaurant in order to reinforce organization and standardization, and to minimize language and literacy barriers. Increasingly, chain restaurants require pre-harvest testing of lettuce fields for E. coli bacteria and require finished-product testing of ground beef for E. Coli and salmonella. Testing for generic micro levels of contaminants at various points along the supply chain is standard practice for nearly every product sold in chain restaurants.

The National Council of Chain Restaurants is the leading trade association exclusively representing chain restaurant companies. For more than 40 years, NCCR has worked to advance sound public policy that best serves the interests of both chain restaurants and the millions of people they employ. NCCR members include some of the country’s largest and well-respected quick-serve and casual dining companies. NCCR is a division of the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade group. www.nccr.net

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