Is FDA Capable Of Keeping Food Safe?

Experts Say Understaffed Agency Is Unable To Prevent Future Outbreaks Of Contaminated Food

(CBS)  In late 2005, a year before a deadly outbreak of E. coli in spinach, the Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to California growers expressing its "serious concern" over ongoing outbreaks of foodborne illness from that state's lettuce and spinach crops, CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes reports.

There had been 19 outbreaks since 1995.

The letter did not indicate plans to step up inspections. Instead, it called on the industry to take "the appropriate measures to provide a safe product."

One year later, outbreak No. 20 — the spinach — killed three and sickened more than 200.

A former FDA deputy commissioner says the agency is so understaffed it has little capacity to prevent outbreaks, even predictable ones.

"I think basically FDA right now is really not able to protect the safety of the food supply the way people expect," Michael Taylor, the former FDA deputy commissioner for policy, told CBS News.

An anonymous tip alerted the FDA to salmonella in a ConAgra factory more than a year before the peanut butter made there sickened 400 people.

Investigators visited the plant but didn't press ConAgra to explain why it had recently destroyed a batch of peanut butter.

Part of the problem, critics say, is that in recent years food has take a back seat to drugs at the agency charged with regulating both.

"Sadly, today this great Food and Drug Administration, when it comes to food safety, has become the weakest link," said Sen. Richard Durban, D-Ill.

Just compare the FDA to its sister agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The FDA is responsible for 80 percent of the nation's ever-growing food supply; the USDA for the other 20 percent. And yet the USDA has five times the number of inspectors.

"If products are regulated by FDA, like seafood and produce and grains, they might only see an inspector once every five or 10 years," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

That's why this month, in the wake of the E. coli outbreak, the California produce industry imposed standards on itself — far more strict than the FDA’s rules.

"We didn't wait for regulation or legislation. That can take a lot of time to do," says Joe Pezini of Ocean Mist Farms. "Even the government has said this is the fastest way to enact change."

The Bush administration's budget calls for an additional $11 million for FDA food safety efforts next year. Former FDA officials say the agency needs 10 times that.

Meanwhile, CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports that the FDA isn't just under fire for how it handles food – the drug part of its safety mission is also under attack in Washington – and for the same reason: The agency doesn't take action until after someone gets sick or dies.

"There is a saying: 'The history of the FDA is written in tombstones,'" says Bill Vaughan of Consumers Union.

For example, researchers connected Vioxx to up to 140,000 heart attacks before the FDA pulled it from the market. With Baycol, the death count was 31. The drug Rezulin caused 28 deaths before it was recalled.

One reason is the FDA is not allowed by law to require a drug safety study after a drug is released to patients market. And even after the FDA learns of problems, it has to ask the drug manufacturer for a changes on the label.

[skinnydipt]

I trust the FDA's oversight of our food supplies about as much as I would believe there are honest snake oil salesmen (oh...if the FDA approves them, they are???) NOT!

The pet food recall and extension there of is just the tip of the iceberg. More information about the imcompetence of the system makes headlines, but those who work(ed) investigating foodborne illnesses are not surprised. The most vulnerable humans are the young, the very old and the infirm...but even healthy adults with varied diets could be at risk. Our animal companions and farm animals are just the "canaries in the mine".

It can't be ALL because of Bush, but it is falling in his watch. We need massive reform NOW.

[randalds]

When it's a Republican White House it's always "foxes guarding the henhouse". All of the FDA, FDIC, FCC standards go lax (except for the censorship part, of course, in the FCC's case). Interior Dept. opens up more land for strip-mining. Justice Dept. only serves the corporate elite and tries to strip everyone else of their civil rights... you can make a list a mile long of how the GOP works to accelerate the decay of this country.

Posted by ciruoc at 09:30 PM : Apr 23, 2007

Exactly!! 100% correct!

[starleo146]

You think our food is safe why the h#&ll are we buying food from China look what happened to our animals our vitamins are made in China you just wait, and the bird flu didn't it start in China we need to get our food right here we raise chickens, have cows,pigs, grow fruit and vegetables what else do you want.We do not know what is in this stuff and if you believe in the FDA I got a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you.

[gunnerv1]

No! Too few of them and Too much to look at!

[jdubs63]

Why is George blamed for everything. Take responsibility for your own being and wash your hands,wash your veggies and cook your meat .

[ianlou]

The FDA is too busy ensuring we can't buy "potentially dangerous" (= less expensive)prescription drugs from foreign countries, to ensure that "potentially dangerous" food additives don't land on our dinner plates from foreign countries.

[erasmus6]

Maybe if the FDA had also expressed it's concerns to the public, they would have then had a choice whether to eat spinach and then there may have been no deaths.

[alphaa10-2009]

Whenever a scandal erupts in the Bush regime, from Katrina to domestic spying to E. coli and what we put in our plates, we have only to thank the Grover Norquist mantra "the least government is the best government".

That squib of a doctrine has poisoned every moment of the Bush years with corruption and incompetence, while Bush2 and minions made sure America got the least they had to offer.

As the fallout from the Bush era attests, this bogus idea about proper governance is simply not borne out by fact. If Bush2 proves anything at all by negative example, it is the importance of effective, intelligent government.

The best government model is both informed and diligent. Weighing wisdom and power, Plato said each is vital for effective government.

Meanwhile, fumbling with the levers of government power, the Bush FDA has not mastered even the appearance of administration, much less its conduct.

[acauble1]

Attention Neo-Cons:

Your tainted/poisoned food.........


...... is brought to you by your beloved Bush Administration and the tax cuts that helped decimate the FDA!


BON APPETIT!

[kennergirl]

To answer the question... No.

[booyaw_77]

If you wanna pre-empt a war against disease, thats a whole other story. With a whole other set of the rules of engagement. Prevention isn't exactly a common sense science, ya know. Once we know something is there, we can fight it sure and square. But we have to wait until it hits.. to know. Thats just a.. sad fact of life.

[booyaw_77]

Its like computer virus protection. Ya can't defend against something you don't know exists, until it comes and after the fact. Ya see what I'm say'n? A disease has to strike first before you can defend against it.

[walt1944-2009]

I once had a boss a long time ago who gave me this bit of advice, "Save your money, buy a farm, live off the land". Everyone thought the guy was looney, but considering what we could be eating right now, that doesn't sound like a bad idea! At least you will know what you are eating when you grow it yourself. Besides, King George says if we fight the "terrorrrists" in Iraq, they won't come here. If they sprinkle some industrial junk on our food supplies from wherever, they won't have to come here! The bottom line is that we are going to have to bring back the "victory garden" and grow our own stuff in any free land there is that the greedy developers haven't built something on yet. That's King George's "booming economy"; export all the manufacturing jobs and turn everyone who doesn't have a million dollars into a farmer (didn't the Khmer Rouge do that in Cambodia back in the 70's?). I finally figured it out: George Bush and all the "bushies" are followers of Pol Pot and secretly belong to the Khmer Rouge! Are the "Killing Fields" next or are they here already in a place called Iraq?

[l8c6]

yep, big government oversight agencies fail to do the job of advocating for the common good when corrupt republican politicians who represent a privatized multinational business interest fill the positions with their henchmen and cut funding to the programs.

[bc123]

When it's a Republican White House it's always "foxes guarding the henhouse". All of the FDA, FDIC, FCC standards go lax (except for the censorship part, of course, in the FCC's case). Interior Dept. opens up more land for strip-mining. Justice Dept. only serves the corporate elite and tries to strip everyone else of their civil rights... you can make a list a mile long of how the GOP works to accelerate the decay of this country.

[goldesprit]

Until we hold government officials and cronies accountable, in a real "go to jail do not pass go" way, we will have no ACCOUNTABILITY.

Then, (Apocalypse NOW) we go on our merry way down the tubes because we are to chicken to hold specific individuals accountable during, before, and after the fact(not just by slapping their wrists!).

If we won't wake up as a country and prosecute those who would posture as "leaders" and "Agencies" but fail us miserably in actual performance--and worse, treasonous activity--
we are sleepwalking into oblivion, a painful slide without anesthesia.

If we want hope instead of wishing for it--the above is The Way. The Roadmap to a Phoenix America.

[shanev137]

great, bush can't even keep our food safe now.

good thing we just blew $500 billion in iraq for nothing.

[kstrisha]

I agree with native woman, absolutely NO!

[hypnotoad72]

No, but they can regulate.

It's up to those who package and sell the food to follow those regulations.

Stop regulating and do you think that, for even one attosecond, anybody would continue to keep existing regulations in place of their own free will? No. They will be dropped, with the typically used claim that regulations are expensive.

[antoniof123]

Well, it looks like all the progress we made in the past going to let the seller beware has now reversed itself. It is now let the buyer beware. Of course when it is you then the shoe will be on the other foot. Thank you to all you neo cons who gave us so much but I hope that you get what you deserve.