Safe Food Coalition

The Safe Food Coalition (SFC) brings together consumer, public health, research, and labor organizations to advocate for improvements to the food safety system. The SFC supports national and state safeguards to protect consumers from foodborne illness; robust foodborne illness surveillance; policies to increase food system transparency; and safe workplaces that foster a culture of food safety. Since it was created in 1986 by Carol Tucker-Foreman, Consumer Federation of America has coordinated the coalition.

Over the past 35 years, the SFC has played a pivotal role in ushering in changes to the food inspection system, including:

• Adoption of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point or “HACCP”-based meat and poultry inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA);
• Classification of Listeria monocytogenes as an adulterant in ready-to-eat products;
• Classification of coli O157:H7 and other Shiga-toxin producing E.coli (STECs) as adulterants in ground beef;
• Requirements that mechanically tenderized beef steaks and roasts be labeled;
• Development of USDA’s web-posting of retail consignees for USDA recalled items and online disclosure of pathogen testing information;
• New rules at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prevent Salmonella Enteritidis contamination in shell eggs;
• Passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which moved FDA from a reactive to a preventive regulatory approach and gave the agency authority to conduct food safety inspections on produce farms.

Currently, the SFC’s members include: Center for Food Safety; Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention; Center for Progressive Reform; Center for Science in the Public Interest; Consumer Federation of America; Consumer Reports; Food & Water Watch; Government Accountability Project; National Consumers League; STOP Foodborne Illness; U.S. PIRG; and United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW).

Advocacy Requests

SFC members regularly advocate to improve public health through connecting with regulators, legislators, academics, and industry at the state and national level.  While each organization is independent, occasionally issues come to our attention which call for SFC to conduct coordinated advocacy under the banner of the coalition.

If you have a food safety issue that you believe deserves coalition attention, please contact Thomas Gremillion, Director of Food Policy at Consumer Federation of America, at tgremillion@consumerfed.org.

Include [SFC Advocacy Suggestion] in the email subject line, and resources describing the issue.  These resources ideally include some of the following:

• Media Coverage
• One-Page Summaries
• Organizational Reports
• Scientific Articles

Due to limited resources, not every topic can be covered by SFC, though individual coalition organizations may prioritize these topics in their individual advocacy.