I believe that food producers, processors, distributors, transporters and handlers are morally, ethically and legally responsible for ensuring the safety of the food that passes through their hands.
I believe that the responsibility for producing and selling safe food does not vary with the size of the company.
I believe that both imported and domestically produced foods must meet the same high standards of safety.
I believe that legislators are duty-bound to develop and promulgate unambiguous food safety laws, and to update those laws as the situation and the science dictate.
I believe that legislators are duty-bound to provide government agencies with the regulatory tools and financial resources needed to enforce food safety laws.
I believe that government agencies and their personnel are morally and ethically responsible for rigorously enforcing all food safety laws and regulations.
I believe that companies and individuals who knowingly sell or supply contaminated food should be subject to prosecution for reckless endangerment and, if convicted, should be severely punished.
I believe that consumers are entitled to full, factual and prompt information on all food safety recalls and food-borne disease outbreaks.
I believe that consumers have a right to know where their food originated and what ingredients it contains.
I believe that consumers must accept responsibility for safely preparing, handling, and storing food at home.
Sadly, I also believe that we have a long way to go – both in the USA and elsewhere around the world – before my personal food safety credo becomes a reality.
Want to know more? Then please feel free to browse Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives
eFoodAlert 
why so little BSE testing by USDA of most susceptible animals?
Recently scientists have said Alzheimer’s and Parkinson Diseases in humans are transmissible prion/protein misfolding diseases:
http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/showthread.php?t=162196
http://www.alzheimers-prions.com/
Human prion diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, may be due to lack of USDA testing for mad cow disease (in 2010 only 34,386 cows were tested out of 37 million slaughtered)
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/hot_issues/bse/surveillance/ongoing_surv_results.shtml
Prions in animal feeds are also a serious risk:
Livestock, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry, dogs, cats, etc. are being fed the MBM (meat and bone meal) rendered remains of potentially prion infected animals. The US Dept. of Agriculture has been covering up for years the fact that 1.9 million “downer cows” – the animals most likely to have Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) – Mad Cow Disease – are rendered into animal feeds and pet food.each year. Only about 5000 downers are tested for BSE. Rendering does not inactivate prions.
http://www.sludgevictims.com/prions/downers.html
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) (mad cow) has been circulating and amplifying in the US food chain since the mid 1980s when Dr. Richard Marsh proved that farmed mink were dying from Transmissible Mink Encephalopathy (TME) after being fed downer cattle.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/andrew1804.cfm
“Could Alzheimer’s be infectious? ” http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2006/11/24/could-alzheimers-be-infectious/
SEE reply posted by:
Dr. Murray Waldman, coroner for the city of Toronto, Canada:
“In answer to the question how would Alzheimers (AD) be transmitted, I have written a book Dying For A Hamburger that hypothesizes that AD is spread by how we in North America and Europe feed and process meat, mainly beef.
If you study the rates of AD and its geographical distribution, you will find that rates start to soar when a country becomes meat eating (i.e. Japan and Korea in the 1960s) and rises even faster when it adopts a fast food culture (the US and Western Europe in the 50s and 60s) and remains low in vegetarian countries (India) and those without a processed meat industry or fast foods (equatorial Africa) Murray ”
See VIDEO Interview –Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease
http://www.healthydepartment.com/alzheimers-disease/interview-mad-cow-and-misdiagnosed-alzheimers-disease-4541.html
Interview with Dr. Colm Kelleher author of “Brain Trust:The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease” recorded November 16, 2004. video about 1 hour long – well worth the time
Prion diseases may also be caused by modern meat packing practices where by “a typical burger patty is packed with the meat and fat of 50 to 100 cattle from multiple states and two to four countries.”
Eat two hamburgers a week — as the average American does — and in a year’s time the consumer samples a stampede: 5,200 to 10,400 cattle.”
http://www.think-aboutit.com/health/CattleDrive.htm
Human and animal prions in sewage sludge “biosolids” being topdressed as “fertilizer” on America’s cropland, including grazing land, hay fields and dairy pastures, are putting livestock and wildlife at risk: http://www.sludgevictims.com/pathogens/prion.html
Helane Shields, Alton, NH hshields@tds.net
Prions and Alzheimer’s and sludge:
http://www.alzheimers-prions.com/
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I love your food safety credo!
As a pet food safety advocate, I sympathize with your sadness that the world has a long way to go before your credo can become a reality. I hope you take comfort that your efforts bring the world that much closer to the transformation of a dream into reality.
I wish you all the success!
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The true cause of the outbreak was found by a guy in Minnesota in about a week. The FDA knew it was comnig from pico, knew people in Texas and New Mexico were getting sick in Mexican restaurants, know that a majority of all our produce is imported from Mexico, and they couldn’t pinpoint the cause or where it was comnig from. Give me a break. Apparently the Feds think we are all idiots. All they care about is money and greed and they are willing to kill a few Americans to keep the Washington gravy train going.
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