A number of court cases in recent years have challenged the validity of some of the criteria that underlie U.S. food safety regulations and undermined regulatory agencies' authority to enforce these standards.  Concerned about the growing controversy, Congress mandated the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies to study the scientific basis for existing criteria and the extent to which they are appropriate to protect consumers. 

The resulting report, Scientific Criteria to Ensure Safe Food, provides a blueprint for how the agencies responsible for regulating food safety should develop appropriate, science-based criteria.  It also identifies barriers that impede regulatory actions to improve food safety, such as adopting new technologies and enforcing standards.

Report recommendations include the development of a national plan to harmonize foodborne disease surveillance with the monitoring of pathogens across the food production and distribution continuum and the adoption of science-based, transparent strategies to develop food safety criteria by food regulatory agencies.  To develop such criteria, the committee described and recommended the use of a variety of science-based tools, such as risk assessments and statistical process control. The committee also indicated that food safety criteria should be clearly linked to specific public health goals.