Raw product and end product testing

The House oversight hearing on food safety is fascinating. A lot of questions whether FDA needs more authority to institute recalls and impose regulations, of course.

Representatives of Menu (pet food) ConAgra (peanut butter) and Natural Selection (spinach). Charles Sweat, president of Natural Selection LLC, told the committee about raw product and end product testing at their packing facility. Sweat said that the testing has revealed pathogens on raw product lots from California, Arizona and Mexico but no pathogens on end product.
To date, Sweat said 23 raw product samples have tested positive for pathogenic E. coli, and 16 tested positive for salmonella. All those lots were destroyed in an incinerator, he said.

Sweat said Natural Selection, as far as he knows, is the only company doing raw product testing for E. coli in California. However, he said that Natural Selection does not want to use food safety as a competitive advantage, but is sharing their experience with other firms and associations.

I would have to say that Natural Selection's testing for pathogens - modeled after the meat industry's testing for E. coli - is far-sighted and seems to be an obvious path for the industry.