More steps are being taken to improve U.S. food safety. The Agriculture Department unveiled new regulations April 5 that would force meat and poultry companies to delay shipments to consumers until government inspectors get results of products they have tested for E-coli bacteria and other contaminants. The move is an effort by the government to prevent outbreaks of food poisoning and reduce the number of costly product recalls.
美国正在采取进一步措施加强食品安全。美国农业部刚刚出台的规定说，生产肉类和家禽产品公司必须在政府检查人员对其产品进行的有关大肠杆菌和其他污染物的检测结果出台后才能开始将产品运送到消费者手中。政府希望通过这些努力来防止食物中毒的爆发以及减少更为昂贵的食品召回的次数。
New regulations
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates one-in-six Americans are sickened after eating contaminated food and 5,000 die every year. During the past several years’s outbreaks of E-Coli and Salmonella poisoning have led to massive food recalls of ground beef and other things like spinach, tomatoes and eggs.
根据美国疾病控制和防治中心的估计，每年大约有六分之一的美国人在食用了含有污染物的食物后中毒，另有5000人死于食物中毒。过去几年，由于爆发大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌，美国发生了碎牛肉、菠菜、西红柿和鸡蛋等食品被大规模召回的事件。
"People are alarmed when they see these kinds of outbreaks and they want the food industry to do something," Robert Brackett, a food industry analyst said.
食品工业分析师罗伯特·布拉克特说：“公众在看到这些食品污染事件大规模爆发后，都提高了警觉，他们希望食品工业可以采取一些行动。”
Now the food industry and the U.S. Agriculture Department have established tougher regulations to keep contaminated items out of the food supply. Meat and poultry products will be prevented from reaching consumers for 24 to 48 hours until government inspectors have the opportunity to review tests to help ensure consumers are getting the safest food possible. Government researchers believe if the new guidelines had been in place two years ago more than 44 serious food recalls could have been prevented.
现在食品工业和农业部联手制定了更为严格的规定将受污染的食品排除在粮食供应之外。家禽类和肉类制品必须等候24到48小时才能到达消费者手中，在此期间，政府检查人员将对这些产品的检测结果进行审议，尽可能确保消费者获得最安全的食品。政府研究人员相信，如果在两年前实施了这些新的规定， 美国至少可以避免44起严重的食品召回事件。
Long-term heath outcomes
"It is much more important to prevent the product from going into the marketplace than it is to recall it after it's been there," said Pat Buck, who founded the Center for Foodborne Illness, Research and Prevention in 2006. Buck made the decision several years after her grandson Kevin died from eating food tainted with E-coli bacteria.
帕特·巴克在2006年成立了是食物感染疾病研究和防治中心的执行主任。她是在孙子凯文因为食用感染了大肠杆菌的食物死亡后成立这个中心的。她说：“禁止这些产品进入市场要比进入市场后再召回要重要得多。”
Buck says serious foodborne illness is not just about having an upset stomach.
巴克说，食物感染疾病不仅仅只是造成你的胃不舒服。
"It can also lead to a whole host of long-term health outcomes. One reason we formed our organization was to start examining and looking at those long-term health outcomes," Buck explains.
她说：“它还引发一系列长期的健康问题。我们成立这个组织的一个原因就是要对这些长期健康问题进行检测和研究。”
Improving infrastructure
Other food safety advocates say the U.S. system is stronger since President Barack Obama signed The Food Safety Modernization Act into law last January. It represented the first major overhaul of the nation's food safety infrastructure in more than 70 years. The act requires companies to stop contamination before it happens by increasing inspections at food processing facilities and forcing companies to recall tainted products. Buck says the tougher rules will have a big impact.
其他粮食安全活动人士说，自从奥巴马总统在1月份签署了《食品安全现代化法案》后，美国的食品安全体系得到了加强。这也是美国70多年里对食品安全基础设施作的第一次重大调整。该法案要求各个公司加强对食品加工设施的检查以防范食品污染案件的发生，并召回有毒产品。巴克说，更为严格的制度会有大的影响。
"Definitely it will save lives. Will it make our food safe tomorrow morning? No," she said. "This is a major change that means we are going to have to develop regulations and we are going to have to find resources to put the new programs in place."
巴克说：“这当然是挽救生命的措施。但是，这是否会让我们的食品明天早上就变得安全？不会。但这是一个重大改变，意味着我们将不得不完善制度。我们还要找到新的资源建立更多的项目。”
Buck says it could take 10 years before significant changes to the nation's food safety system are in place. In the meantime, she says her organization will continue working to encourage more research and raise public awareness about foodborne illness and making the food we eat safer.
巴克说，美国食品安全体系要发生重大的改变还需要十年的时间。她同时说，她的机构将继续努力，鼓励更多的研究，增强公众对食品污染疾病的意识，使得我们食品更加安全。 |