NASA Apollo Program Helped Boost US Food Safety
Americans are less likely to get food poisoning this Thanksgiving thanks to NASA. Yes, NASA. The space agency’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system created decades ago for the lunar landing initiative is credited to this day with reducing foodborne illnesses.Originally developed for astronaut food in the early days of the Apollo program, the HACCP system has been adopted by major players in the food industry.Sixty years ago, at what is now Johnson Space Center in Houston, a nutritionist and a Pillsbury microbiologist partnered with NASA to provide uncontaminated food for the astronauts on the Gemini and Apollo missions.Instead of testing end products, Paul Lachance and Howard Bauman came up with a method that identified and controlled potential points of failure in the food production process.To make astronaut…