The word of the day is: FOOD

In researching my feature story and attending the Association of Health Care Journalists Conference in Philadelphia, I have spent the better part of the month immersed in the broad topic of food.

A pig house at Wilson Swine Farm in Hartwell, Ga. 

I discovered the smell of a swine house, the ins and outs of a cattle farm and the changing regulations applied to what eventually ends up in our stomachs.

Food is much more than what we buy to satisfy hunger, whether it's a box of off-brand pasta or a hunk of fancy cheese. There is a complex process that lies behind what we see on our shelves; but for most of us, food just magically appears on our plates, and we leave it at that. What I've learned about the process of making our food products is troubling, to say the least.

Around 80 percent of the antibiotics consumed in this country are given to livestock, or close to 18 million lbs. And that's not because all the cows have bacterial infections. Antibiotics, the same ones prescribed to us when we get an infection, are encouraged as a way of speeding up the growth process in these animals. The big issue here is that, while eating a steak that was once fed antibiotics won't hurt you personally, everyone is affected collectively by resistance to drugs that we rely on to save lives.

Last year the FDA, CDC and US Department of Agriculture all testified before Congress that there is a link between overuse of antibiotics in food animals and the rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

And while it may seem as simple as cutting down on the wanton use of antibiotics in healthy animals, industry officials will always fight it.

The idea of antimicrobial resistance is a beast, but the message I got out of this session at AHCJ is that current regulations and public education on the subject are inadequate, a theme that seems to be recurrent when talking about food safety.

And food safety is on everyone's minds lately due to recent outbreaks of salmonella that leave the entire country, and my mother, in a panic over what's safe to buy.

The new Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in January, marking some major changes in how food production is regulated. The panel at AHCJ focused on how far the bill goes in actually making a difference in food safety for the United States. The act is focused on prevention rather than reaction, which has been the FDA's primary role for years.

Surprising to me was the fact that the law had not been modified at all since 1938, and little had changed since its creation in 1908.

With one in six people becoming sick from food-borne illnesses annually (CDC), it seems obvious that the bill needed to be updated along with the evolving nature of our food industry.

So what does the new bill do for us as consumers?

For starters, under the new bill, not only can the FDA now mandate recalls of products, but it will also conduct more frequent inspections of facilities. If a company is associated with unsafe food, the FDA will be able to suspend its registration, halting distribution of the affected product. Retailers will also be required to place placards advising customers of a recalled product.

For the first time, there will be standards for the safe and correct production and harvesting of produce, with exemptions for smaller farms and individually-produced food.

Organic tomatoes in a greenhouse at the
UGA Horticulture Farm in Watkinsville.

Additionally, suppliers must now produce written safety plans to be provided to the FDA, who will also have access to any food safety records. And international suppliers, who bring in about 15 percent of our food, won't be left out. Before, only around 1 percent of imports were checked; now international suppliers must provide proof of certification and can be barred from entry into the US if found in violation of standards or if they deny an inspection by the FDA.

So there is now more real-time protection of consumers, with better prevention methods in place and the FDA taking on extended monitoring responsibilities.

But while the bill seems like a major step up, there are still problematic areas. For example, 20 percent of the food industry (meat and dairy production) is actually regulated by the USDA. The FDA also has no authority to issue civil penalties to violators of safety standards, only administrative detention.

This is, however, where collaboration becomes key. Without partnerships among national, state and local government agencies, food producers and other stakeholders, real progress in food safety won't happen. Because of the complexity of the bill, we aren't likely to see any immediate changes, but hopefully it will result in safer, more reliable food production.

Our local Subway just started to stock spinach again ... and I'm hoping it stays that way.