Food makers say won't overreact to safety scares

By Nichola Groom - Analysis

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A string of high-profile food safety scares has heightened government and consumer concerns about the U.S. food supply, but top food companies say they have felt little need to react dramatically to those events because their quality standards are already so rigorous.

In the last two years, food safety debacles involving peanut butter, spinach and other products have intensified pressure on lawmakers to protect the nation's food supply.

Most recently, Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co in California conducted the largest meat recall in U.S. history last month after videos showed fallen cattle being forced into the plant for processing, a violation of federal regulations. No illnesses were linked to the recalled beef, but the concern is that there is a greater risk of E.coli contamination in beef from disabled, or downer, cattle.

At the Reuters Food Summit in Chicago this week, Stephen Sundlof, director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, warned that the nation's food safety system "could be just one incident away from some catastrophic event ... If there was an additional crisis, it might be at the breaking point."

Companies attending the summit, however, argued that the U.S. food supply is extremely safe and that they have spared no expense to make sure their products do not make people sick. After all, safety scares are not only disastrous for sales, they can also create situations where recovery is impossible.

"We don't have the option of not doing everything we can to supply safe food to the marketplace," said Joe Sanderson, chief executive of chicken company Sanderson Farms Inc (SAFM.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

The Bush administration is weighing proposals that would toughen government standards on food safety, including giving the FDA the power to order a mandatory recall of food. The U.S. Agriculture Department's Richard Raymond, the undersecretary who oversees its Food Safety and Inspection Service, said at the summit that his department is also toughening its standards, in part by testing more pieces of meat before they go off to become ground beef.

Retailers are also becoming choosier. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), for instance, said last month that suppliers of its store brand and perishable foods must comply with Global Food Safety Initiative standards, which go beyond the current audit process required by the USDA.  Continued...