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The Effectiveness and Costs of Using More Sophisticated Food Safety Technologies

Objective

Using food safety technology data, this project examines the impact of various types of food safety technologies on Salmonella pathogen performance. It also considers the characteristics of plants adopting various technologies and the impact on plant costs.

More information

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: This project will examine the types of plants adopting various types of food safety technologies and the effectiveness of those technologies in meeting FSIS food safety performance standards. <P>

APPROACH: This project uses standard econometric techniques and combined data set that includes data from various FSIS databases, recently collected ERS food safety technology data, and Census data to examine the research questions.
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PROGRESS: 2003/10 TO 2004/09<br/>
Work began in the summer of 2002 on writing a summary paper dealing with survey results from an ERS survey of meat and poultry plants on their food safety technologies and HACCP costs. The paper was published as an ERS report in the Spring of 2004. Subsequent work at Census has with ERS and FSIS data has led to another paper examining the effectiveness of various technologies in controlling pathogens. Preliminary results were given as briefings to FSIS in 2004 and a more comprehensive briefing will be given on June 23, 2005. A paper should be completed subsequently. Research will then begin on the characteristics of technology users.
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IMPACT: 2003/10 TO 2004/09 <br/>
One paper that summarizes survey data has been completed and another preliminary paper that examines the effectiveness of food safety control technologies in better controling pathogens has been completed. This paper should be ready for publication sometime at the end of 2005.

Investigators
Ollinger, Michael
Institution
USDA - Economic Research Service
Start date
2003
End date
2004
Funding Source
Project number
DSHE20
Accession number
406286