S.T.O.P | America's Voice for Safe Food


S.T.O.P. was born out of the collective grief and anger of parents of E. coli O157:H7 victims. The January 1993 outbreak of E. coli associated with Jack in the Box hamburgers turned out to be a pivotal moment in contemporary food safety history. Because of the sheer magnitude of the outbreak, the threat of E. coli contamination for the first time garnered nationwide media attention. The publication of the names of those who died enabled victims of previous incidents and outbreaks of E. coli from around the country to find one another. Prior to this outbreak, most consumers had been unaware that these microbes even existed or that they could be in the foods they purchased. The general public had no idea that microbes in food could cause such life-threatening illness.
Victims and families who had come close to losing or lost their loved ones came together to form S.T.O.P., which was incorporated as a not-for-profit in California in 1993. The organization began as a grassroots effort, with the clear mission that changes in the food safety rules and regulations were needed, and that the American people deserved to know what these risks were. S.T.O.P.’s organizational founders did not all have professional backgrounds as microbiologists, doctors, veterinarians, or pathologists, but they were propelled by the importance of the message they had to deliver to American consumers. They were family members who wanted answers as to why their children and parents were dying from contaminated meat. They educated themselves extensively on these subject matters, and began to grow the organization with the mission that change was needed so that preventable illness and death could be spared.
I became a food safety expert in the aftermath of the Jack in the Box tragedy. We had just buried my daughter’s friend, had started working on a memorial grove for her, and still didn’t know what she died from. All of the sudden on the national news we heard that there were similar deaths in Washington caused by something called E. coli bacteria, but because California didn’t have laws that required reporting of E. coli cases to public health authorities, the meat was allowed to move up the coast to Seattle and sicken approximately 500 more people and kill three more children. Our local PTA took this on as a children's health issue, and the more we learned, the more questions we had about the safety of our food. -Donna Rosenbaum, S.T.O.P. Founder and Current Executive Director
Because no other non-government organization was addressing this challenge, S.T.O.P. quickly gained a membership base and national visibility. S.T.O.P. leaders were frequently contacted by media sources. Victims of foodborne illness from across the country called S.T.O.P. since it is the only organization sensitive to what they had been through. In the year after the Jack in the Box outbreak, national television news programs ran five separate meat and poultry safety shows featuring victims of foodborne illness, many of them S.T.O.P. members who made their personal tragedies known for the sake of public education. S.T.O.P.’s early message to American consumers was that certain foods had the potential to present a serious risk to their health and to the lives of their family members, which they knew from horrific personal experience. They communicated that meat, seafood and poultry - and increasingly, produce and fruit juice - could carry pathogens that present serious risks to human health.
The more S.T.O.P. leaders researched how food became contaminated, the more they understood the complexity of the challenge of preventing foodborne illness. They learned that a myriad of government agencies oversee food safety, reporting of foodborne illnesses varies considerably by state, and there is a lack of effective communication on both a federal level and between states when an outbreak occurs. They learned that branches of the United States government already knew about emerging foodborne pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7. However, the government did not have a comprehensive plan to combat these new pathogens, nor had they adequately informed the public about them. For years, scientists and consumer advocates had been quietly warning the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Congress, and the media that the failure to inspect meat and poultry for bacteria would lead to a food safety disaster. But routinely, the response had been "if it's as bad as you say, why aren't there any victims?" As it turned out, there were thousands of victims -- they joined S.T.O.P. and their outrage fueled the growth of the organization.
S.T.O.P. joined the Safe Food Coalition, a group of twelve consumer organizations that advocate for food safety, and quickly became a strong voice within this group. The faces and stories of those whose lives had been shattered by foodborne illness were channeled through the advocacy work of the Safe Food Coalition, and became a catalyst for change. S.T.O.P.’s victims and their families told their stories, and slowly people and organizations began to listen and act.
Early on, S.T.O.P. spent time educating the USDA and the meat industry about the devastation and significant illness that is caused by E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. S.T.O.P. wanted warning messages delivered to consumers. There was significant resistance at every turn. But, with persistence and national media coverage, S.T.O.P.'s message continued to spread. After numerous, substantive contacts with USDA and industry officials, S.T.O.P. was finally invited to sit at the policy making table, and eventually became a key player in facilitating the first meat and poultry inspection reforms in over 90 years. These reforms included microbial testing for animal fecal contamination such as Salmonella and E. coli. The voice of S.T.O.P. could not be ignored - the organization put the faces of foodborne illness in front of the statistics.
S.T.O.P. has had many successes over the years with public health work focused on advocacy, victim support, outreach, and safe food education. S.T.O.P. has worked extensively with national and local media, receptive food industry trade groups and companies, government representatives in both houses of Congress, as well as officials at the USDA, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). S.T.O.P. has worked with Safe Food Coalition partners to hold congressional forums, including legislative, victim, and professional panels that represent diverse groups such as physicians and meat inspectors.
	S.T.O.P. members are uniquely powerful advocates for food safety. They have had the courage to speak truth to power, insisting that policymakers hear their intensely personal and painful stories of the suffering and loss caused by food poisoning. S.T.O.P. members are not like other “victims.” They have armed themselves with a detailed understanding of the regulatory failures that led to personal tragedy and they bring specific proposals to prevent future suffering. This powerful combination of personal commitment and hard data has often overcome the power of industry money and influence. With the resources to continue their research, S.T.O.P. moves both government and industry to take the actions needed to reduce the terrible toll of foodborne illness in the United States. -Carol L. Tucker-Foreman, Distinguished Fellow, Food Policy Institute, Consumer Federation of America
S.T.O.P. pushes for government agencies to reform their policies in order to better address food safety. An early success happened when S.T.O.P. leaders educated the USDA on the importance of having medical professionals on staff at the agency. Previously, they had only employed veterinarians who understood animal disease, but not foodborne disease in humans. As a result, medical personnel were hired to work at the USDA in 1994. S.T.O.P. leaders were also concerned that within the USDA, both marketing and inspection were done within the same agency - a clear conflict of interest. S.T.O.P. spoke up and had a hand in the decision to divide the department into two sub-agencies dealing separately with marketing and inspection.
S.T.O.P. also quickly became a place where victims could turn for assistance and support. The organization fielded numerous telephone calls from people whose children and parents had gotten sick from E. coli across the country. Some had died; others survived but faced medical uncertainties. People wanted information. They wanted to know how to protect themselves in the future... they wanted options for recourse. Early on, when there was not a lot of understanding in the medical community about the emerging E. coli pathogen, victims often were not getting properly diagnosed or treated. S.T.O.P. compiled and distributed packets of information to consumers, victims and their families, and medical professionals. Prior to the Internet, it was difficult to obtain information on emerging diseases such as E. coli that were not yet reportable to or tracked by public health officials.
Since the organization’s inception, S.T.O.P. has had a unique role of providing a listening ear to victims, referring them and their families to information and resources to help them cope with their illness and save lives. S.T.O.P. has been an anchor point for victim support as many have struggled with the medical and emotional effects of foodborne diseases. Many of S.T.O.P.’s leaders, including several current board members, came forth initially as victims seeking help. They became involved, learned about the issues, and then became spokespersons for S.T.O.P. and have testified on Capitol Hill, and participated in extensive media interviews. They did not want their grief to go unnoticed and recognized that S.T.O.P. provides an avenue to prevent future suffering.
The organization has also become recognized for its extensive background in and broad distribution of information on food safety. In 2003, S.T.O.P. leaders wrote and released a groundbreaking report, “Why Are People Still Dying from Contaminated Food.” This report outlined food safety challenges, as well as recommendations to create a stronger food safety system in the United States. S.T.O.P. has held regional and national conferences and teleseminars to raise awareness and build support for advocacy efforts. S.T.O.P.’s membership base has enabled the distribution of information on current food safety risks, advocacy challenges and opportunities, first via mailings and newsletters and more currently via E-alerts.
One of the reasons S.T.O.P. has been so successful is because the organization continually implements major media campaigns to raise awareness that allows food safety issues to gain importance and legislative attention. Early on, this media attention caused industry and legislative officials to stand up and take notice of food safety when no one had previously done so. This media coverage was pivotal in assisting in advocacy and legislative efforts to reform food safety in the United States.
Current food safety strategy followed by both the government and industry places far too much emphasis on consumer behavior. This over-emphasis on consumer education fosters the misleading impression that it is the consumers’ responsibility to make sure their food is safe, and if people get sick, it is their own fault. The most direct and effective solution to the problem of foodborne illness is to keep pathogens out of the food supply in the first place. S.T.O.P. strongly advocates addressing the food safety at the beginning of the problem.
While S.T.O.P. advocates for safe food preparation practices, the organization is focused on affecting change in food handling and processing, at the beginning of the food chain. For over 15 years, S.T.O.P. has advocated tirelessly on behalf of consumers and the health of the American public. With the goal of saving lives and preventing unnecessary illness and suffering, S.T.O.P. provides a unique and national service to victims and families needing both immediate and long-term help. While S.T.O.P. has had significant accomplishments, and food safety regulations and agencies have improved as a result of this work, much more needs to be done to keep Americans safe from contaminated food.