Chicago - U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman renewed calls for broader food safety enforcement powers at a memorial service held in Chicago on Sunday for victims of a deadly 1993 outbreak of E.coli bacteria.
"We need a power that we do not have now beyond recall power," Glickman said. "I do not have the power as Secretary -- or the department doesn't -- to level civil fines on violators of food safety (law)."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is set to implement Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems -- which are science-based prevention systems -- at larger meat and poultry plants on January 26.
But the agency still lacks power to recall tainted food or levy fines for violations.
Under HACCP, meat and poultry processors must implement a system to monitor each level of production to ensure that contaminants never reach the dining table.
The memorial service, sponsored by the grassroots organization S.T.O.P. (Safe Tables Our Priority), was held on the fifth anniversary of an outbreak of E.coli 0157:H7 bacteria in the Pacific Northwest, where 700 people were sickened and four children died from eating undercooked hamburgers.
Glickman, who said that food safety was his top priority, told the service that shoddy health practices would not be tolerated following implementation of HACCP.
"We will be watching you," Glickman said. "If you're out there producing dirty product, don't expect 1,000 chances to get it right."
Parents of children sickened or killed by the 1993 E.coli outbreak who attended the memorial service said they were pleased with the government's efforts to stop foodborne illness, but also warned against complacency.
"HACCP is a big step for the American public," said Suzanne Kiner, the mother of a child sickened from eating tainted beef in Seattle in 1993. "Will I ever say enough is being done? I won't because I've held a dying child in my arms."
Kiner's 15-year-old-daughter, Brianne, survived after being sickened by E.coli in 1993, but she has no large intestine and still suffers seizures resulting from her bout with the deadly bacteria.
E.coli 0157:H7 bacteria can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and sometimes kidney failure. The bacteria is most dangerous for young children and the elderly and has been blamed for thousands of deaths since its discovery in 1982.
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