Speed kills – especially when government moves too quickly to regulate food safety.

With the release of a report on the costs of illnesses caused by unsafe produce, the pressure is intense on Congress to pass far reaching food safety legislation and on FDA to produce regulation. The problem is that, like most modern food safety problems, there is no quick and easy fix and regulation will only fix into law requirements that might address a few of the problems but are likely to miss many of the problems. Here’s why and how better to meet safer food goals.

The ways in which pathogens get into produce are complex and changing. Problems on farms in dry California are entirely different than those in wet Florida. What’s more, the sources of contamination on farms can change, with birds or rodents perhaps causing problems one day and contaminated ponds used for irrigation the next. There is also an extremely complex set of distribution, warehousing, and retail sectors to contend with. Each of these sectors faces its own unique challenges. Then, there are the unsophisticated food handlers, that is, consumers, at the end of the end of chain who are normally connected to the bulk of problems. Finally, there are the pathogens themselves, e.g., e.coli and salmonella, which are constantly mutating into different strains.