Recent high-profile coverage of food recalls have Americans changing the way they look at food, and critics talking about the need to fix a system supposedly “gone wrong.” In fact, a recent survey funded by the Beef Checkoff Program found that more than 50 percent of consumers believe the number of foodborne illnesses is on the rise — despite Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data that indicates E. coli illnesses declined significantly in the past decade.
Food safety is not new to the beef industry. What may be new to consumers is the collaborative effort of every level of the industry, from farm to table, to find and develop new ways to bring each consumer the safest product available. Beef safety is more than an expectation, more than the effort of one single entity — it is the sum of the entire system, from farm to table.