Egg farm regulations still skimpy

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Egg farm regulations still skimpy

By Kauffman, The Des Moines Register

One year after 1,900 people were sickened and a half-billion Iowa eggs were

recalled, government inspectors continue to find unsanitary conditions and

inadequate protections against salmonella on Iowa's egg farms.

None of the violations has resulted in penalties from state or federal agencies,

and Iowa's egg producers still aren't required to tell state officials when they

find salmonella.

Records obtained by The Des Moines Register under the Freedom of Information Act

indicate that some of Iowa's major egg producers aren't meeting minimum federal

standards intended to protect consumers from salmonella enteritidis — a

potentially fatal bacterial infection that triggered a nationwide egg recall

last August.

Critical elements in the Food and Drug Administration's reports — such as the

size of rodent infestations, the brand names under which the eggs are sold and

even the names of diseases documented at the egg farms — are blacked out and

withheld from the public.

Iowa has been the No. 1 egg-producing state in the nation for the past 10 years.

Eggs are generally safe, said Jeff Nelken, a food safety consultant based in Los

Angeles. But, he added, the salmonella outbreak in 2010 demonstrated they're not

safe enough.

Despite new federal rules intended to give consumers greater protection against

food-borne illnesses:

•Inspections at egg farms are announced days in advance. Government officials do

little on-site testing for salmonella.

•Penalties for health and safety violations that could lead to salmonella

poisoning don't exist at the state and federal levels.

•Federal food safety laws that take effect next year will apply only to farms

that have 3,000 or more hens, leaving dozens of Iowa egg producers largely

unregulated.

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