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FDA Touts Efforts to Enhance Food Safety
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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | Next >> On the intervention front, the FDA said it has inspected 5,930 high-risk food establishments in the past year; has developed a rapid detection test for E. coli and salmonella in food that's now being used in poultry-processing plants; and has expanded its database of "adverse drug events" to include "adverse feed events," to respond faster to outbreaks of feed-borne disease in animals, among other efforts.
As for its "response" efforts, the FDA said it's working with industry and the public to find better ways of tracing fresh produce in the food-supply chain; has hired two "emergency/complaint-response coordinators" to improve the agency's response to emergencies involving animal feed, including pet food; and has reached agreements with six states to create a "rapid response team" for food and food-borne illnesses.
In response to the threat of melamine-contaminated infant formula and milk products from China, the FDA said it has canvassed more than 2,100 stores stocking Asian products to remove them from store shelves.
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Some critics think the FDA's food-safety efforts still don't go far enough.
"We were not a huge fan of some of the goals they laid out, so we are not a huge fan of the progress they've made," said Patty Lovera, assistant director of the consumer watchdog group Food & Water Watch.
Lovera thinks the FDA needs to have more independent authority to enforce food safety.
"They are too reliant on the industry," Lovera said. "They are really collaborating with the industry -- there is really not new regulation. There is not an overall commitment to enforcement domestically or abroad. This whole plan they are reporting progress on, we think is a step in the wrong direction."
Lovera said many of the food-safety problems that occurred this year highlighted the FDA's shortcomings. For example, late last week, the agency set acceptable levels of melamine in domestic infant formula -- one month after stating that no levels were acceptable.
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Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
Last updated 12/1/2008
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SOURCES: David Acheson, M.D., assistant commissioner for food protection, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Health Policy, George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, and senior policy adviser, Trust for America's Health, Washington, D.C.; Patty Lovera, assistant director, Food & Water Watch, Washington, D.C., Dec. 1, 2008, U.S. Food and Drug Administration report, Food Protection Plan: One-Year Progress Summary; Dec. 1, 2008, news release, Consumers Union, Washington, D.C.
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