Feds at Work: Safeguarding the nation’s food supply

The predictive research that microbiologist Vijay Juneja spearheads at a Department of Agriculture research center helps ensure that the ready-to-eat foods so coveted by today’s consumer are as safe as they are convenient.

By mimicking in the laboratory the conditions in which food industry processors, retail establishments and home cooks operate, Juneja’s findings translate to a longer shelf life for food products and safer dining at home and in restaurants. For each product that he tests for optimally safe preparation and storage, a predictive model is generated to guide the industry’s plan of attack against microbial threats to the food supply.

“We do research to simulate the conditions that occur in the industry, so that the industry can use the findings to improve their processes,” said Juneja who, since 1991, has worked at the Pennsylvania-based Eastern Regional Research Center of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service.

The government’s Food Safety and Inspection Service routinely uses Juneja’s results to evaluate the safety of cooked products. His predictive models help to shape federal health and safety regulations.

“He has a deep sense of service to the American public, and even beyond.” ~Dariusz Swietlik, USDA

In essence, Juneja’s research saves the industry money and protects the public at the same time. The stakes of these experiments are high: Food poisoning strikes about one in six Americans annually, resulting in 3,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the contracted illnesses are highly preventable.

Dariusz Swietlik, Ph.D., who directs a Northeast Area operation comprising several labs including Juneja’s, says his colleague is highly dedicated to work that affects a variety of stakeholders, and that Juneja relates well with all of the constituencies.

“Predictive microbiology is a relatively young field, an interesting concept that merges biology with mathematics,” Swietlik said. “In this global world, it is very much needed. Food knows no borders anymore.”

Juneja concedes that several trends have made the task of safeguarding the nation’s food supply more challenging. Busy consumers continue to demand more table-ready food products for their families but as they have grown more health-conscious, they also seek out the lowest amounts of preservatives in what they buy.

“They also don’t want to shop every two days,” Juneja said.

In addition, the globalization of the food supply means the American consumer is exposed to a wider variety of exotic ingredients. But a lack of harmony in food safety standards worldwide raises issues, he said. “There is concern about farming practices in developing countries.”

Juneja became acquainted with some of these subjects firsthand while working as a veterinarian early in his career in his native India. When he moved to the United States in the 1980s to pursue a dream of attaining a Ph.D., news of the emergence of foodborne illnesses during the decade propelled him toward a different path professionally.

“The India of the 1970s didn’t have big grocery stores,” he said. “I observed the huge stores here, and I became very much interested in the applied aspect of food safety. I wanted to do something that would have an impact on the public health.”

As the USDA’s longtime lead scientist of predictive microbiology for food safety, Juneja has become the go-to source on topics ranging from highly technical applications that can derail small industry processors to practical questions that can puzzle the public.

Around Thanksgiving, he invariably gets asked how long a cooked turkey can be left on the dining table and how thoroughly it should be reheated to ensure safe consumption of the leftovers.

Juneja regularly conducts educational workshops at the request of industry representatives, regulatory agencies and academia. He sees his role as helping to strike a balance between government interests in stronger regulation and the industry’s preference for more relaxed standards. The overall goal remains to protect product safety at each step along the farm-to-fork journey.

“My job is to design studies so that the results can be used by both [the Food Safety and Inspection Service], as data for new or revised regulations, and the industry, to create new products and processes,” he said.

Juneja also contributes significantly to an international database hosted at the Agricultural Research Service that shares information on microorganisms commonly found in food in various environments.

“He has a deep sense of service to the American public, and even beyond,” Swietlik said.

Now 60, Juneja says he also is enjoying a mentoring role helping younger researchers design experiments. Once accustomed to cutting into family time on the weekends to meet the around-the-clock needs of the food industry, he now advises those who want to follow in his footsteps that “not one person can do everything. You have to take the advice of other people to move your ideas forward.”