Introduction

When you are busy breeding sows and feeding hogs it is easy to forget your customers, the consumers and their expectations. But they are your ultimate customer. If they lose confidence in your product, you have no market. They expect your pork to be nutritious, economical, and risk free. Pork is certainly economical and nutritious but, like most of what we eat, it is not risk free.

You have very successfully addressed the fat issue and now produce a leaner product than years ago but the risk of food poisoning remains. If the consumer thinks that other food products pose less of a risk than pork then, other things being equal, they will support your competitors: poultry, beef, and seafood. Presently, all pork products are considered as one product. That is, pork is pork and if I feel sick after eating pork I will probably consume less pork in the future. As branded products garner more of the market, buyers may discriminate and continue to buy pork, just not the brand that gave them food poisoning. Think how easy it is for customers to cross the road and buy from a McDonalds rather than a Jack-in-the-Box.

In this paper, I will concentrate on food poisoning, the most important food safety risk to consumers from eating pork, but remember that your customers consider pesticide and other chemical (e.g., antibiotics) contamination to be more important (table 1). To address those issues, you must enroll in the Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) program and follow its recommendations.

The Risks of Food Poisoning, Real and Relative:

The last time you had food poisoning--and most people have had it--it probably was just mildly inconvenient. You probably didn't realized it was caused by food. You treated it yourself, and you almost certainly did not report the incident to a doctor or any government agency. In contrast, severe or extensive outbreaks are aggressively treated, reported, and measures taken to avoid a recurrence. In some outbreaks deaths do occur but these are rare (table 2).

Clearly, food poisoning is not a major risk to life, but that is no reason to be complacent. Reported figures are probably an underestimate because cause of death is often difficult to establish. And the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that 33 million Americans a year contract foodborne illnesses, resulting in annual costs of $420 million for medical treatment and $7.3 billion in losses from reduced productivity.

What Causes Food Poisoning?

Many viruses, bacteria, parasites, and chemicals can cause food poisoning (table 3).

Where do Food Poisoning Organisms Come From?

Food poisoning organisms exist even in healthy hogs and can persist through the processing chain to cause illness in the person who finally eats the pork. However, organisms also can be introduced by handlers at all stages of processing, from your farm through the processor, distributor, retailer or food service establishment, and finally to the consumer.

Faced with a problem of this magnitude and pervasiveness, it is tempting to allocate the problem to others and hope that they will solve it. To minimize the risk of foodborne disease, packing plants should handle their hogs better and process it more carefully. Retailers and distributors should take better care and, for example, ensure pork is always held at the correct temperature. Lastly, and unquestionably most importantly, food service and home food preparers must improve the sometimes sloppy way they prepare pork.

What Can You Do?

There are two ways you can help ensure that pork is the safest meat. Firstly, ensure that the hogs you send to slaughter carry fewer foodborne disease causing organisms. And secondly, learn how pork should be handled to minimize the risks and educate those who are not so enlightened.

How hogs should be handled:

In recent years, the Dutch have tried to produce Salmonella-free pigs. The following measures were often effective on experimental fattening farms.

• Clean and disinfect housing and transport
• Introduce only Salmonella-free pigs
• Use pelletized feed
• Use all-in/all-out systems for growing and finishing pigs
• Control rodents, eliminate birds
• No visitors
• Don't spread slurry close to housing
• Send hogs directly to slaughter. Long transit times increase Salmonella

How pork should be handled:

Follow the directions for keeping food safe as outlined in Appendix 1.

Two Projects for the Future:

Trichina Free Pork

Ask anyone what they fear most about eating pork and they will likely say trichinosis, the parasite living in pork muscle. Most cases of trichinosis in humans are associated with eating wild animals, e.g., bear meat. When infected meat is eaten, it can cause a variety of symptoms including muscle soreness and swollen eyelids. For pork the problem is grossly overrated. Although the risk is real, it is small!

Surveys during the 1940s indicated that approximately 12% of the United States human population were infected, and about 400 cases of illness were reported per year. Through public education and restrictions on feeding garbage to hogs, human cases per year have progressively dropped to about 50 cases nationwide for the past decade. For swine populations, currently only about 0.6% and 0.4% nationwide and in North Carolina respectively are positive. Serologic tests were available to identify infected herds but are no longer sold because of lack of demand.

Given the low prevalence in North Carolina and our ability to identify infected herds I believe it is time to put some Carolina Pride in your product and make North Carolina hogs trichina free. Because the blood tests are not 100% accurate it is not possible to certify individual hogs free. However, if the test was available again, your veterinarian could blood test a sample of your herd and certify with 99% probability that your hogs are trichina free. To keep your herd trichina free:

• Do not feed hogs improperly prepared garbage
• Buy replacement breeding stock only from trichina-free herds
• Have an extensive rodent control program
• Prevent hogs from eating wildlife by having adequate fencing
• Immediately control tail-biting episodes by removing offending pigs and treating and isolating those with bitten tails.
• Prevent cannibalism by immediately removing sick or dead hogs from pens.

No more broken needles in pork:

Recently, I have been shocked to find how commonly our customers find broken needles in pork. You know how it happens; you choose too thin a needle for the task and the animal moves unexpectedly. Magnets on the processing lines do not find all of the shafts; that's left to our customers. This has got to stop. Enroll in PQA to find how you can avoid this and other problems.

Fortunately, there is a product available to cattle producers and under development for swine producers that will eliminate broken needles. The system is based on an air gun that shoots a pellet of encapsulated vaccine or antibiotic into the pig's muscle. Hopefully, the system will evolve and become available to the swine industry.

The advantages to swine producers for adopting preharvest food safety programs include:

• Improves consumer acceptability
• Assures uniform products
• Adds value to the meat
• Enhances maintenance of markets including the international markets
• Enhances the sustainability of the system
• Improves product quality
• Extends shelf-life
• Reduces carcass condemnations
• Improves swine health
• Reduces swine health costs
• Improves human health

Take-Home Message

Producers must assume more responsibility for the safety of pork. Our customers expect a risk-free product and are considering their options. The popular press has already provided many articles on the topic and sensitized the public. You cannot expect the issue to just go away.

You can help by:

1. Asking your veterinarian or extension agent to give your farm a "food-safety" audit.
2. Learning how to handle pork and help others understand. Order copies of the USDA publication "Preventing Foodborne Illness" and distribute it locally. Call 1-800-535-4555.

It is up to us. In February 1992 the Consumer Reports magazine published the results of their investigation into the seafood industry. It was damning. We must take a proactive approach and work to improve pork before we lose our customers.Appendix 1

Keeping Your Food Safe

Shop Wisely...

• Try to make food shopping your last errand before going home. This reduces the time your perishable groceries will be without refrigeration.
• Buy the best quality, freshest foods available to you. Let your eyes and your nose guide your selection.
• Choose packages that are not torn, broken, or past Sell By or Use By dates (if available).
• Select frozen and refrigerated foods just before going to the checkout register.
• Avoid frozen foods that are not frozen solid or cans of any food that are bulging, leaking, dented, or rusty.
• Pack raw meat and poultry products separately from other groceries; prevent their juices from dripping on other foods.

Store perishables promptly...

• Avoid leaving frozen or refrigerated food in a warm place, particularly in your car. Transport perishable foods in an ice-packed, insulated cooler during summer.
• Refrigerate all products marked Keep Refrigerated; freeze those with Keep Frozen labels.
• Leave product in store wrap unless torn; re-wrap in plastic if package is leaking (especially raw meat and poultry); double wrap in aluminum foil or freezer plastic if product is to be frozen for more than a couple of months.
• Date all undated products and rotate older products to front of shelf.
• Always store foods in clean, dry places away from household cleaners and where pets, rodents, and insects can't get at them. Do not store foods under the sink.

Keep a clean kitchen...

• Clean kitchen counters, cutting surfaces, dishes, and utensils before and after preparing food; scrub with hot water and soap; rinse. Bacteria lurk in cracks in wood, so when you can, substitute glass, plastic, or stainless steel for wood.
• Launder dish cloths and towels often; replace dish sponges every few weeks, earlier if dirty or mildewed. Soak sponges in a mild bleach solution between uses.
• Take your refrigerator's temperature periodically; use an appliance thermometer to check for proper temperature. Keep refrigerator at 35-40 degrees F; keep freezer at 0 degrees F or lower.
• Clean your refrigerator and freezer regularly; discard items when they exceed recommended storage times.

Practice good hygiene...

• Always wash your hands with soap and very warm water (make a lather) before each food preparation, especially after using the bathroom or handling pets, diapers, garbage, or raw food.
• Cover your mouth and nose and turn away from food when you cough or sneeze; wash your hands again before resuming food preparation. Avoid handling food when you know you're ill, particularly if you suffer from vomiting, abdominal cramps, or diarrhea.
• Bandage small cuts on your hands. Avoid handling food if you have infected cuts or sores on your hands.
• Keep clothing free of human and animal hair. Hair can fall into and contaminate the food you prepare.

Cook foods thoroughly...

• Cook foods at recommended temperatures to kill disease-causing micro-organisms; use a meat thermometer to check internal temperatures of foods for "doneness."
• Cover food to be microwaved with glass or waxed paper (heated plastic wrap should not touch food); stir and turn for even cooking; use cookware appropriate for microwaving.
• Cook meat, poultry, fish, egg dishes, and casseroles thoroughly in one process.
• Serve hot foods hot -- hold above 140 degrees F.
• Reheat cooked foods (processed or refrigerated) to 165 degrees F; bring soups, stews, gravies to a rolling boil.

Know the cold facts...

• Follow the 2-Hour Rule: Don't leave perishable foods unrefrigerated for more than two hours.
• Thaw frozen foods in the refrigerator, microwave, or under cold water in a watertight wrap, not on the kitchen counter. Never refreeze frozen food that has completely thawed; cook it before freezing it again.
• Refrigerate meat while it's marinating.
• Refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible; cover them as soon as they have cooled. For quick cooling, divide large volumes of soup, stew, gravy, and casseroles into small containers no more than four inches deep. Cut large meat roasts into pieces no more than three inches thick.