Critics charge that FDA's food monitoring does not pass inspection
In 2006 the FDA conducted just half the inspections it conducted in 2003; the FDA safety tests on U.S.-produced food fell almost 75 percent during the same period; FDA inspection of imported food fell by 25 percent
An AP analysis of federal records found the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted just half the inspections in 2006 than it did three years ago. The same analysis showed that FDA safety tests on U.S.-produced food fell almost 75 percent during the same period. Not that the news is any better for imported foods: FDA inspectors physically checked 1.3 percent of imports, about three-quarters of the amount inspected in 2003. FDA employees in field offices who specialize in food issues have been reduced by 12 percent.
The decline in FDA food inspections is beginning to tell. Last spring Consumer Reports magazine tested four leading brands of broiler chickens and found that 83 percent contained campylobacter or salmonella, the two chief bacterial causes of food-borne illness. This is well above the 49 percent that tested positive for one or both of the pathogens in 2003.
“We have a food-safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, head of the University of Georgia’s Center for Food Safety. The decline in inspections is especially worrisome against the post-9/11 realization that terrorists may use poisioning of the food supply to inflict harm on U.S. and other countries’ citizens. The Bush administration has proposed boosting funding for the FDA by $10.6 million next year. But Tommy Thompson, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and others contend a tenfold increase is warranted.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)has estimated that food-borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths each year in the United States. Two years ago, the General Accounting Office (GAO), the auditing arm of Congress, noted that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) activities account for almost three-quarters of the agencies’ inspection and enforcement expenditures. “That is, the majority of federal expenditures for food-safety inspection are directed toward USDA’s programs for ensuring the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products; however, USDA is responsible for regulating about 20 percent of the food supply. In contrast, FDA, which is responsible for regulating about 80 percent of the food supply, accounted for only about 24 percent of these expenditures.”
-read more in this The Ledger report; and Sonia Reyes’ CBS Bandweek report
