COLLEGE STATION – Drs. Gary Acuff and Kerri Harris, faculty members at Texas A&M University, have been appointed to national food safety committees.
Acuff, professor and head of the department of animal science, will chair a 10-member committee that will evaluate food safety requirements of the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program. His appointment is from the National Research Council.
Harris, an associate professor in the department of animal science, also has been named a member of this committee. The animal science department is part of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M.
Under the Federal Purchase Ground Beef Program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture purchases and distributes ground beef for federal food and nutrition programs. Suppliers to this program must comply with nutritional, food safety and quality requirements.
According to the program’s website, http://dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Evaluation-Food-Safety/DELS-BANR-10-01 , the committee will examine food safety measures required of ground beef suppliers. Such measures include food safety requirements in the manufacturing of ground beef items and testing throughout the process, from slaughter to delivery.
The study will also examine how agriculture department standards, methods and requirements compare to those used in the large purchasing programs of industries that supply ground beef products directly to the consumer.
Acuff’s area of expertise is the microbiological quality and safety of foods. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Abilene Christian University and master’s and doctoral degrees in food science and technology from Texas A&M.
Harris is the director of the Center for Food Safety, a part of the meat science section of the department of animal science, and is president and chief executive officer of the International HACCP Alliance, an organization that provides programs for safer meat and poultry.
In addition to the National Research Council appointment, Acuff has also been appointed to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Advisory Committee for a three-year term.
This committee provides the commissioner of food and drugs with advice on food safety, food science, nutrition and other food-related health issues, according to the FDA website.
The 17-member committee is selected based on each member’s knowledge in areas such as physical sciences, biological and life sciences, food science, risk assessment, nutrition, food technology, molecular biology, and other relevant scientific and technical disciplines.
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