|
Source of Article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100830170 ·
Feb. 20, 2009 NPR.org,
February 20, 2009 · Salmonella
traced to a peanut plant has killed nine people and sickened hundreds,
putting the system that safeguards the nation's food supply in the spotlight
again. The jumble of agencies and regulations has long been criticized. But
now the idea of streamlining it has support in the president's Cabinet. When
President Obama was asked about the safety of peanut butter during an
appearance on NBC's Today show earlier this month, he expressed the
concerns likely shared by families across the nation: "At bare minimum,
we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they
eat peanut butter." The peanut
butter outbreak shows that when it comes to food safety, the government
infrastructure is clearly failing, according to Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of the food safety program at the Center
for Science in the Public Interest. "Food
safety is regulated by about a dozen federal agencies implementing about 35
laws," she said. "It's filled with gaps and cracks and failures to
fully cover the problems that we're seeing in the food supply today." The
Frozen Pizza Illustration Among the
items found in most supermarkets' frozen food aisles are frozen pizzas — a
perfect illustration of the regulatory quandary. Pizzas with meat on them —
and the plants where they are made — are inspected by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. But plain cheese pizzas are inspected by a wholly different
federal agency: the Food and Drug Administration. It's a
system that makes no sense to the new agriculture secretary, former Iowa Gov.
Tom Vilsack. "I'm
suggesting that the time is right for us to modernize our system … into a
single agency so that there is not the risk of something falling through the
cracks when it's unclear about which agency has jurisdiction or it's unclear
as to whether or not one agency is communicating with the other agency about
what they're finding," he said. USDA
Vs. FDA Right now,
USDA, which inspects meat products, covers about 20 percent of the food
industry. The FDA is responsible for the remaining 80 percent. Critics say
the FDA is dysfunctional and underfunded and has too many other
responsibilities, such as regulating drugs and medical devices. U.S. Rep.
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) says the FDA's drug and medical responsibilities should
be separated from its food-regulation function. "If
you separate out the food safety functions, you will create a food safety
agency, you would have a drug and device agency," she said. "The
president would nominate an administrator for each, confirmed by the Senate,
[each with its] own budget, its own resources to move forward." Scott
Faber of the Grocery Manufacturers Association says while his group isn't
necessarily opposed to a revamped FDA or a single food safety agency, there
are other things to consider. "Much
more important is what food safety agencies are doing, not so much who is
carrying out these functions," he said. Faber says
there should be safety standards for fruits and vegetables, better
inspections of imported foods, and mandatory rather than voluntary recalls of
tainted products. With the
agriculture secretary favoring a single food inspection agency, and the White
House clearly attuned to the problem, advocates are hopeful that the peanut
scare may finally prompt some change. |
Copyright (C) All rights reserved under FoodHACCP.com
If you have any comments, please send your
email to info@foodhaccp.com
