Center for Food Industry Excellence
Purpose
Food safety is a concern for all consumers and it will continue to have local, national and global outcomes and impacts. Essential to this effort is improving the safety of foods produced in the United States and of imported foods from Mexico and other Central American countries. This research is aimed at:
- Determining the impact of environmental factors on cross-contamination of food-borne pathogens from animal to animal and from animal to carcasses and ultimately how they reaches the consumer
- Developing educational programs in English and Spanish and determining the behavior changes caused by the training
- Expanding the library of on-line classes for use by food industry professionals for training innovations to meet specialized nutritional needs of niche populations
- Reducing food-borne illness through educational programs in the meat industry in the United States and Mexico
- Reducing food-borne pathogens through the development and implementation of new intervention technologies that inhibit pathogens in beef and poultry products
Relevance
The overarching goal of this research program is to more effectively reduce contamination of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella. This can be accomplished by combining research with targeted educational training and implementation of interventions in the US and for the Mexican meat industry to reduce food-borne pathogens. Our goal is to develop a comprehensive food safety culture. This effort will be achieved by determining knowledge gaps and training needs for small and very small processing plant personnel through survey-based research. Food processing employee knowledge needs will be determined using survey analysis within a social-science needs assessment model. The needs assessment will provide information pertinent for creating effective educational materials and interventions in formats consistent with the scope of the project.
Potential Impacts
- Reducing Pathogens/Food Safety. Improve the safety of imported meat products by reducing pathogen loads from up to 40 percent in meats to less than 10 percent over the next five years. These products will be consumed in the United States and Mexico in an effort to reduce food-borne illnesses and improving food safety locally and globally
- Lower Childhood Morbidity/Global Food Security. Provide a safer product in Mexico and reducing the number of deaths due to food-borne pathogens, especially in children ages 0-4. Food-borne illness is the No. 1 cause of death in this age group in Mexico
- English Spanish-Based Training Programs. Develop of a Spanish-based training program that can be used in the United States and Mexico and other Spanish-speaking locations available on-line, on DVD and through podcast
Lead Agency: Texas Tech University
Partners: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture
West Texas A&M University