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System created for Apollo astronaut food has become the global standard for hazard prevention<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Countless NASA technologies turn up in our everyday lives, but one of\u00a0the space agency\u2019s most important contributions to modern society isn\u2019t a technology at all \u2013 it\u2019s the methodology that ensures the safety of the food we eat. Today the safety procedures and regulations for most of the food produced around the world are based on a system NASA created to guarantee safe food for Apollo astronauts journeying to the Moon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the Gemini missions, NASA and partner Pillsbury\u00a0tested the food they were producing at the Manned Spacecraft Center, now Johnson Space Center in Houston, and destroyed entire batches when irregularities were found,\u00a0a process\u00a0similar\u00a0to industry practices of the day. In response to agencywide guidelines from the Apollo Program Office\u00a0aimed at ensuring the reliability of all critical systems, they altered that method for the Apollo missions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They\u00a0focused\u00a0on identifying any points in the production process where\u00a0hazards could be introduced, establishing procedures to eliminate or control each of those hazards, and then monitoring each of those points regularly. And they required extensive documentation of all this work.\u00a0This became the foundation for the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Howard Bauman,\u00a0the microbiologist leading Pillsbury\u2019s Apollo work,\u00a0convinced\u00a0his company to adopt the approach, and he became the leading advocate for its adoption across the food industry.\u00a0That gradual process took decades,\u00a0starting with\u00a0the regulation of\u00a0certain\u00a0canned foods\u00a0in the 1970s\u00a0and\u00a0culminating\u00a0in the\u00a02011 Food Safety Modernization Act,\u00a0which\u00a0mandated\u00a0HACCP-like requirements across\u00a0all\u00a0food producers regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. By then, the U.S. Department of Agriculture was managing HACCP requirements for meat\u00a0and\u00a0poultry, while\u00a0Canada and\u00a0much of Europe had\u00a0also\u00a0put similar\u00a0rules\u00a0in\u00a0place.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0standards\u00a0also apply to any outside producers who want to export food\u00a0into\u00a0a country that requires HACCP,\u00a0effectively spreading them across the globe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n