Nature News Blog: Report calls for open access to US food inspections

"It has been just over a year since a widespread salmonella outbreak in the the US led to the recall of half a billion eggs. In the ensuing food safety scare, egg producers at two Iowa companies were hauled up before Congress to explain the deplorable conditions – including oozing manure, live rodents and flies too numerous to count – in their henhouses. Now a report released on 30 November by the National Research Council (NRC) puts that episode along with the broader issue of food inspection back in the public spotlight. In the report, an expert committee convened by the NRC at the request of the US Department of Agriculture came out strongly in favor of free, easy public access to the voluminous data gathered by the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) on individual meat and egg processors. These data include results of laboratory tests for baterial contaminants such as salmonella, pathogenic E. coli, and listeria monocytogenes, records of facility inspections and enforcement actions taken as a result of inspections...."