A Year To Be Remembered

The year 2010 will be one that will not be soon forgotten by anyone who deals with any aspect of food safety.

As I write this, word has just come in that the Senate has passed its version of the Food Safety Modernization Act. However, the bill still needs to go back to the House of Representatives. Contrary to the pingponging that has occurred with the bill and its various amendments—between the House and the Senate; Republicans and Democrats; large manufacturers and small farms; processors, activists, associations and consumers—some representatives are pledging a quick turn to enable passage prior to the end of the session.

By the time you are reading this, you will know the outcome of that pledge, but with consumer involvement and global reach as intense as it has been, either passage or failure will have a major impact on the industry as we move into 2011.

Will the industry become more tightly regulated by a government without the funds to implement regulation already in effect? Or will the industry increase its own self policing in an attempt to maintain control of its own destiny? Whether the bill has passed or failed, neither question becomes moot, because, as we have seen with the 2010 health care reform act, neither passage nor failure will end the dissension or even the pingponging of the shoulds and musts of food safety practices.

QA Advisory Board.
As we move into 2011, the staff of QA Media also continues its ongoing efforts to stay abreast of and keep you informed on the food safety, quality and defense issues that will come with the new year. As such, we would like to, once again, thank the industry leaders of the QA Advisory Board who are always ready and willing to advise us on industry matters.

And, as in past years, we have also taken the opportunity to invite new members to our board. We are proud to welcome two industry experts: Roger Lawrence, quality assurance and regulatory for McCormick & Co., and Temple Grandin, renowned animal handling expert and facility designer, author and professor of animal science at Colorado State University. Read more about both in News (page 10).

We welcome Roger and Temple to our Board and look forward to continued interaction and expertise from both our new and our continuing Board of industry leaders.

The author is Managing Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at llupo@giemedia.com.