Food Safety

On average, each American eats about 245 eggs annually. During the last decade, eggs contaminated with Salmonella Enteritidis bacteria have increasingly been implicated as a cause of foodborne illness in the United States. The bacteria may have sickened about 300,000 people in 1997, killing about 230 of them. More than three-quarters of the Salmonella Enteritidis outbreaks between 1985 and 1998 were linked to eggs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This report reviews the adequacy of the system for ensuring the safety of eggs. Specifically, GAO examined whether (1) a prevention-based approach to food safety has been applied to egg production and processing, (2) a new federal policy on egg refrigeration will effectively reduce the risks associated with contaminated eggs, (3) federal and state policies on serving eggs to vulnerable populations and dating egg cartons are consistent, and (4) federal egg safety resources are used efficiently and policies are coordinated effectively. This testimony summarizes the July 1999 report, GAO/RCED-99-184.

GAO noted that: (1) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not established prevention-based procedures on egg farms or at shell egg processing plants that would reduce or eliminate Salmonella Enteritidis contamination by identifying, controlling, and monitoring known safety risks; (2) 13 states, responsible for about 38 percent of the nation's egg production, have established voluntary prevention-based programs for egg farms; (3) however, these programs do not provide a uniform level of risk reduction because they take different approaches in critical areas such as the frequency of testing for the presence of Salmonella Enteritidis; (4) the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) does not require a prevention-based approach in processing plants where eggs are broken to create egg products; (5) the first national requirement to refrigerate eggs at 45 degrees Fahrenheit or below from the time they are packed until they reach the consumer may not, for a variety of reasons, effectively reduce egg safety risks; (6) implementation and enforcement of the requirements will be split between FSIS and FDA; (7) FSIS has issued regulations, which take effect in August, requiring that eggs be refrigerated during storage and transportation; (8) however, FDA has not yet proposed regulations to require that eggs be refrigerated after they arrive at retail locations such as restaurants and grocery stores; (9) many experts believe that greater risk reduction could be achieved by controlling the internal temperature of the egg, something that the new regulations will not require; (10) inconsistent policies and practices in three other areas have weakened the nation's egg safety efforts; (11) certain groups are more likely to suffer severe health consequences from eating contaminated eggs; (12) only about half the states have followed FDA's recommendation that they require food service operators to use pasteurized eggs or egg products when serving these groups; (13) federal policies allow some eggs to be returned from grocery stores to processors to be repackaged, redated, and returned to the retail level for sale; (14) there are inconsistencies in how expiration dates are used on egg cartons; (15) the inconsistencies in repackaging and expiration dating can mislead consumers about the eggs' freshness and may pose a food safety risk; and (16) the involvement of four federal agencies enforcing a variety of laws makes it difficult to direct resources to the areas of highest safety risk and to effectively coordinate egg safety policies.