The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week repeated its earlier advice about eating raw sprouts following cases of salmonella in Oregon. People at high risk of developing foodborne illness, including children, the elderly, and those with weakened immune systems, should not consume the product, the government body warned.
The two reports show the ongoing battle the world has in beating foodborne illness. While the rate of salmonella in the US in raw meat and poultry dropped by 66 per cent over the past six years and by 16 per cent compared with 2002, the sprout announcement shows that governments must stay on guard.
In Europe a pressing issue today is imminent European enlargement and the impact this will have on food safety. When the 10 accession countries climb onto the EU train next May, food safety will be top of the agenda.
An article this week in the Commission's paper Consumer Voice highlights the fact that new member states will be part of the EU's external frontier, and will have an important role in ensuring that imported animals, plants and food products meet EU requirements.
"The internal market for live animals and animal products is based on the elimination of veterinary checks at internal borders and the completion of all checks for live animals and animal products coming from third countries in specific locations situated at the external borders - border inspection posts," said the report.
Enlargement will have a considerable impact on this regime of veterinary checks, as new points of entry to the EU will be created in each of the new member states.
"It is essential to guarantee the protection of both public health and animal health in the European Union. In view of this, all new border inspection posts must fully conform to EU requirements both in terms of facilities and import rules," added the report.
In an editorial in the same publication (November 2003) European Commissioner David Byrne took the issue further.
"A report adopted by the Commission on 5 November gave the final green light to the 10 countries due to join the EU. We found all 10 would be ready to assume the obligations of EU membership and commended the special efforts they had made over the past year to prepare themselves," he wrote.
But not all of their findings were positive, Byrne added. In particular, the report raised concerns about the ability of some new Member States to meet the EU's food safety standards by 1 May next year.
"Though these concerns were not of a level to justify delaying these countries' accession, I would not wish to downplay their importance. For let me be absolutely clear: there can be no compromise on food safety."