New Alarm Bells Over Food Safety System
Earlier this year, a salmonella outbreak related to peanut products may have contributed to nine deaths and hundreds of illnesses across the United States.
The outbreak was traced to the Peanut Corporation of America, particularly its processing plant in Blakely, Ga. More than 3,600 peanut products were recalled.
The outbreak was viewed as a result of an alarming breakdown in the nation's food safety system, and experts are warning it could happen again if serious deficiencies in that system aren't fixed.
One such expert is William Hubbard, a former Food and Drug Administration associate commissioner, who told CBS News, "The PCA case is a poster child for the many flaws in our food safety system."
In the 1970s, says Hubbard, the FDA had the manpower to inspect every American food plant every-other year. Now, he says, the FDA budget only enables such inspections every 10 years.
Food companies, Hubbard insists, can't be trusted to police themselves, as current law basically allows.
He wants new laws forcing producers to admit to their problems. "At present," Hubbard says, "neither companies nor private laboratories that get a positive salmonella test for food are even obligated to tell the federal government."
And unless additional laws are enacted, he continues, we can expect the U.S. food safety system to be compromised again.
An in-depth look at the system in Monday's USA Today find the system is "severely broken," USA Today Live Managing Editor Laura Ashburn pointed out on The Early Show Monday.
The article is part of a new partnership between The Early Show and the newspaper dubbed "USA Today Early Look."
"If our investigation is any indication, and we believe that it is, the food safety system is severely broken," Ashburn told news anchor Russ Mitchell. "You would think that third party independent inspectors who would have an independent eye would catch things, and they clearly don't. Consistently, they give ratings of superior or excellent when the producers are not."
Asked if anything's been done to improve the system since congressional hearings in February, Ashburn observed, "Not really. There have been hearings and there may be hearings in the future. But we believe that, until all of the stakeholders, from the producers to the inspectors to the federal government, consistently ask for increased food safety that we, the consumers, will be at risk."
USA Today says records show that Nestle inspected the PCA plant twice. The company found that plant conditions didn't measure up to its standards and didn't use PCA products.
Other companies, such as Kellogg's, relied on audits done by a private firm that, the newspaper says, traditionally gave great ratings to its clients. Subsequently, Kellogg's used PCA offerings in its products, which wound up part of the massive recall.
Indeed, the newspaper says its probe found that the nation's food safety net relies heavily on companies doing their own policing and being good operators, and the deadly outbreak is proof that the system is broken and the FDA needs to do more.