AOAC INTERNATIONAL Meetings | 2010 Annual Meeting

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
The Changing Landsdape of Food Safety
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

David Acheson, M.D.
Leavitt Partners

In recent years food safety has gained a much higher national profile than it had in the past. If one had to look for triggering events it was likely a combination of the 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to fresh bagged spinach, followed by the 2007 discovery of melamine and melamine related compounds in wheat gluten that led to the deaths of many pets in the United States.

The result of these and many other high profile outbreaks in 2006 onwards resulted in greater scrutiny by Congress, new actions by the Administration, heightened media attention and diminished consumer confidence. This attention on food safety remains unabated and not satiated in many whose aim is to introduce new and more stringent regulations on the food industry.

The current environment is one of increased regulatory oversight. Regulators are more proactive, especially at the FDA, which results in more enforcement actions such as recalls, import alerts and warning letters; greater focus on the safety of imported foods and a push for requirements for strong preventive controls. At the Congressional level new food legislation has passed the House and a key Senate committee; has wide bi-partisan support and is likely to be enacted before the end of this session of Congress. When the new legislation is enacted it is likely going to be the most sweeping reform of food safety legislation since the FD&C Act was created in 1938.

Pending new federal food safety legislation could target the whole supply chain (from grower to retailer and restaurateur), and will likely impact anyone on the planet involved in the growing, processing, manufacturing, distributing, importing or selling food to consumers in interstate commerce in the United States.

There are unquestionably risks in the food supply chain with many in the business having little or no insight into their upstream suppliers -- especially if global in nature. Improved detection and epidemiological tools will likely link more outbreaks to specific foods in the coming years adding to the ever increasing list of "high-risk" food.

This time of change and greater oversight poses challenges to the food industry but also creates opportunities for those that seek them. Whether you are directly involved in the food supply chain or in an associated industry such as food testing, food tracking or assessing risk, the opportunity to make your company a leader and thereby by enhance and protect your brand has never been so great. In a time when brands can sink overnight in the court of public opinion it has never been more important than right now to stay informed, stay ahead of the curve, identify and manage your risks and build a food safety culture in your industry like never before.

Prior to joining Leavitt Partners, Acheson served key leadership positions at FDA, starting in September 2002 as chief medical officer. In January 2004, he was named director of CFSAN’s Food Safety and Security Staff, which was eventually expanded in January 2007 to become the Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response. In May 2007, Acheson was appointed as the assistant commissioner for food protection to provide advice and counsel to the FDA Commissioner on strategic and substantive food safety and food defense matters. In January 2008, he was named associate commissioner of foods, which provided him an agency-wide leadership role for all food and feed issues, including health promotion and nutrition.

Acheson graduated from the University of London Medical School in 1980, and after practicing internal medicine and infectious diseases in the United Kingdom, moved to the New England Medical Center and Tufts University in Boston in 1987. As an associate professor at Tufts University, he undertook basic molecular pathogenesis research on foodborne pathogens, especially Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. In 2001, Acheson moved his laboratory to the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore to continue research on foodborne pathogens.

Acheson has published extensively and is internationally recognized both for his public health expertise in food safety and his research in infectious diseases. Additionally, he is a fellow of both the Royal College of Physicians (London) and the Infectious Disease Society of America.