During the spring of 1993, in the midst of the E. coli O157:H7 outbreak, the Secretary of Agriculture asked me how many federally inspected beef plants in the United States had voluntarily implemented HACCP.
I had to tell him that out of almost 7,000 plants, less than 500 were practicing HACCP. It was at that time that the U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to begin the process of mandating HACCP for all federal and state inspected plants. Why did it take the death of four children to force us to use a food-safety prevention system that we had known was effective for over three decades?