Food safety technology has improved in leaps and generations

Food safety technology has improved significantly in recent years as molecular microbiology, electronic data sharing and analysis of matching genetic relatedness has advanced, reported Samantha Masunaga in the Los Angeles Times. The comments are from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension specialist Trevor Suslow, who is featured in a Q&A about the food safety problems suffered by the fast-casual restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill.

"We've got a long way to go still to make the level of compliance more uniform, better, cheaper, and some of it is simply lack of science and lack of knowledge about the specific link between practices, pathogen biology, exposure," Suslow said. 

He believes the food at Chipotle is not necessarily safer now that changes have been made at the popular restaurants. 

"I know from personal contact that many similar fast-casual and fast-food restaurants are reassessing their internal operations and their supply chain management," Suslow said. "I guess we'll wait and see how their consumer base responds if they implement the practices of trying to do treatments that change the fresh nature of their components that might not normally be cooked."

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