Thursday, March 26, 2009

Do Fewer Inspections Make Food Safer?

Doug Powell has written a number of blog posts pointing out that inspection don’t make food safety (see the fallacy of food safety inspections.)

Increasing the number of poor inspections will  never improve food safety. However, let’s be careful not to over generalize.  Just ask yourself, “Do fewer inspections make food safer?” 

The past decade has been an American experiment with federal food safety deregulation. The experiment has left Americans with a growing sense of the failure of their government, left the public feeling vulnerable, and intensified calls for reform of our food safety system. Less government oversight and fewer inspections is not working.

I had a great trainer once who challenged me, “Practice does NOT make perfect!  Proper practice makes perfect!”

Inspections do not make food safer.  Proper inspections make food safer.