Two major food safety laws are ineffective
Of the many food safety laws proposed, two were passed — Bioterrorism Act of 2002 and the facility registration database; trouble is, neither is very effective
Many food safety proposals have languished for years, but the two that were quickly adopted face criticism about their effectiveness, Julie Schmit writes in USA Today. The Bioterrorism Act of 2002 required the FDA to set up a database of all firms, foreign and domestic, that process food. It also authorized the FDA to require importers to give it prior notice of when imported goods were due to arrive at U.S. ports of entry. Prior notice was designed to help the FDA and customs officials better detect foods that might be intentionally contaminated, not to detect run-of-the-mill concerns such as bacterial contamination. But the FDA has said the notice, ranging from hours to days, helps it decide which goods to flag. Former FDA lawyer Benjamin England, now an attorney focused on import issues at New Orleans-based Jones Walker, argues that the prior-notice requirement has done little to improve food safety because the data that the FDA gets ahead of time — including importer name, type of food, country and manufacturer of origin — provide few clues about a product’s safety or risk. “If invoice data provides little in the way of risk assessment today, why would I want it yesterday?” England testified last month at a congressional hearing.
The facility registration database, which includes about 300,000 foreign and domestic firms, has also proved limited. The intent was to have a list of companies so the FDA, in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak, could more quickly reach suspect companies, notify them about hazards, and stop further distribution of contaminated foods. Companies supply the data, however, and so far, they have not proved reliable. In a test last year, the FDA attempted to reach the emergency contacts listed for 400 domestic and 400 foreign companies in the database. In about four out of ten cases, it was unsuccessful, according to an FDA report. The reasons: The database listed the wrong person, phone numbers were incorrect or contacts did not speak English, so verification wasn’t possible.
