2000s

Pursuant to a congressional request, the Governmetn Accountability Office (GAO) reviewed the benefits and risks of food irradiation, focusing on the: (1) extent and the purposes for which food irradiation is being used in the United States; and (2) scientifically supported benefits and risks of food irradiation.

When the President created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), he included U.S. agriculture and food industries in the list of critical infrastructures needing protection. The Secretaries of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services have publicly declared that the U.S. food supply is susceptible to deliberate contamination. The Goverment Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to provide an overview of the potential vulnerabilities of the food supply and agriculture sector to deliberate contamination and to summarize four recent GAO reports that identified problems with federal oversight that could leave the nation's agriculture and food supply vulnerable to deliberate contamination.

The safety and quality of the U.S. food supply are governed by a complex system that is administered by 15 agencies. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have primary responsibility for food safety. Many legislative proposals have been made to consolidate the U.S. food safety system, but to date no other action has been taken. Several countries have taken steps to streamline and consolidate their food safety systems.

Food safety reform is on the front burner in Washington, against the backdrop of numerous large-scale illness outbreaks and sustained criticism of obsolete federal statutes, inadequate resources, and fragmented organizations, all of which cripple the government's response to outbreaks, and its ability to prevent problems in the first place.

An EU-wide Salmonella baseline study was conducted on commercial large-scale laying hen holdings with at least 1,000 laying hens in the flock. The study was carried out in all the Member States, and the sampling of the holdings took place during the period of 1 October 2004 to 30 September 2005. Norway participated in the study on a voluntary basis.

Risk Assessment is sectioned into a production module, shell eggs processing and distribution module, egg products processing and distribution module, preparation and consumption module, and public health outcomes module.