Put
Food Safety On The Menu
Published: November 19, 2008 Source of Article: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/nov/19/na-put-food-safety-on-the-menu/ There's a full plate of
urgent issues awaiting President-elect Barack Obama and the
next Congress. The Government Accountability Office, Congress' nonpartisan
watchdog, listed 13 of them recently. Along with some obvious choices, such
as the wars in The government's ability to safeguard the nation's food supply and respond
quickly to outbreaks of food-borne illness is undermined by "the fragmented nature
of the federal food
oversight system," the GAO said. There are 15 federal agencies
administering at least 30 laws; that leads to poor coordination, inconsistent
policy and wasted resources. Anyone not convinced that improving food safety is important should talk
to a The FDA later switched to blaming contaminated peppers from The salmonella outbreak, which sickened at least 1,400 Americans, was the
latest in a series of food
scares in recent years tied to contaminated fresh produce, including
spinach, lettuce and cantaloupes. So while the government is rightly urging
Americans to eat more fruits and
vegetables for good health, it's falling short in protecting produce. The FDA, charged with ensuring the safety of 80 percent of the nation's
food supply, has been underfunded and understaffed for years. That has left
too few resources for inspections, enforcement and scientific research.
Congress and the president belatedly began moving in the wake of the salmonella outbreak
to increase the agency's budget. But stronger laws and better coordination among regulators also are needed
to adapt to today's globalized food supply and better prevent or trace
illness outbreaks. Members of both parties in Congress, including Republican
Rep. Adam Putnam of Bartow, have been working together on these kinds of
improvements. In particular, the FDA needs to establish mandatory national safety
standards that would apply to fresh produce from farm to fork, based on the best
science available. Those national standards would replace a patchwork of
state and industry standards around the country, and fill in gaps where no
standards exist. They would also be applied to imported produce. Groups representing the nation's fruit and vegetable growers have said
they'd welcome the standards. They know how wide the damage from even an
isolated case of tainted produce can spread. The Obama administration needs to save some room for protecting public
health by making overdue improvements to food safety. |
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