The avian flu outbreak has been “all-consuming” for the Food and Drug Administration, which is concerned about the possibility that the virus could mutate and spread to humans, says Jim Jones, the agency's deputy commissioner for human foods.
Speaking at a town hall at Food Safety Magazine’s annual Food Safety Summit Thursday in Rosemont, Illinois, he assured the crowd that pasteurization is effective in containing the virus and said the agency is now working to test how high the viral load needs to be before there are issues with pasteurization.
“We are concerned about this virus having the opportunity to mutate and become a dangerous human pathogen,” Jones said. “The fact that pasteurization is effective does not mean we as a government are not worried about this and are still working to aggressively manage that aspect of it.”
This is not the first brush with avian flu, but it’s raised more concerns because of its spread to mammals, Jones said.
The greater attention to the outbreak from the public and government could also be something like “PTSD” from the COVID-19 pandemic, said Sandra Eskin, deputy undersecretary for food safety for USDA, which regulates the safety of meat and poultry.
“I think you don't want to wait until it winds up in more than one human ... to take action,” Eskin said. “So that's always the balance between preventing and responding.”
Even though the virus was found in milk, it has not been identified in ground beef or muscle during testing, Eskin said.
Jones also said the reorganization of the FDA human foods program is on track to be completed by the beginning of the new fiscal year, or Oct. 1.
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He also touted his agency's finalization of the Food Safety Modernization Act agricultural water rule. Implementation of the rule is going to be a “heavy lift,” Jones said, and the agency plans to work with state partners on education and supporting compliance.
The agency has heard that distributors in particular are struggling with implementing traceability regulations that will take effect Jan.1, 2026. FDA plans to hold several roundtable sessions in June with various representatives of the supply chain to find solutions, Jones said.
“We're very committed to making this rule work," Jones said. "We recognize that if there's part of the supply chain that doesn't work, the whole thing fails, because you literally need every step of the way or the traceability to get back to where you're ultimately trying to trace."
