FDA food inspections cut in half despite food recalls

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Sorry if this is a repost, I'm very behind in reading my emails. ~Rocky http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/171043 FDA food inspections cut in half despite food recalls By Andrew Bridges and Seth Borenstein THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The federal agency that's been front and center in warning the public about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago.

The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls. "We have a food-safety crisis on the horizon," said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to a database analysis of federal records by The Associated Press. The analysis also shows there are 12 percent fewer FDA employees in field offices who concentrate on food issues, and safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the FDA, at the urging of Congress, increased the number of food inspectors and inspections amid fears that the nation's food system was vulnerable to terrorists. Inspectors and inspections spiked in 2003, but now both have fallen enough to erase the gains. "The only difference is now it's worse, because there

are more inspections to do — more facilities — and more food coming into America, which requires more inspections," said Tommy Thompson, who as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services pushed to increase the numbers. He's now part of a coalition lobbying to turn around several years of stagnant spending. Bigger budget sought The Bush administration's budget request for 2008 adds $10.6 million for food safety at the FDA, but the lobbying group said 10 times that increase is needed. The FDA increased its overall spending on food between 2003 and 2006, but not enough to keep pace with rising personnel costs. "It's not just outsiders like us who have been watching it for a while. People who worked in the Bush administration are coming out and saying the agency is not working at its current resource levels. It just can't manage the job," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for

Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group. Members of Congress also have renewed the focus on the safety of the nation's food supply amid highly publicized recalls sparked by food poisoning, including last year when E. coli was found to have tainted fresh spinach sold coast to coast. That outbreak killed three people and sickened nearly 200. The latest big recall involves peanut butter believed tainted with salmonella, a bacterium found in feces that can cause severe diarrhea. The outbreak has sickened at least 329 people in 41 states since August, federal health officials say. Food safety experts say it would be impossible to know whether increased numbers of inspectors and inspections would have prevented the outbreak, linked to Peter Pan and Great Value brands made by ConAgra Foods Inc., or other recent food poisoning scares. The FDA had last inspected ConAgra's peanut butter plant in Sylvester, Ga., in

February 2005 and had found no problems, agency spokesman Michael Herndon said. High-risk foods Firms that produce high-risk foods more susceptible to contamination, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, are supposed to be inspected every year, unless they have a good safety record. Then inspections are done every two or three years, Herndon said. For other foods, the FDA rotates inspections, depending on resources. FDA food inspectors look for filth, decomposition, adulteration with pesticides and industrial chemicals and the illegal use of color or food additives, according to the agency. Inspectors also look for sources of possible contamination, such as flies. For instance, inspectors are asked to count flies, as well as how often they land on a food product. They're also told to look for any open doors or damaged window screens that could let the insects flit back and forth between the

product and, say, a toilet, floor drain or garbage can, according to agency documents. The shrunken ranks of inspectors have left the nation once again vulnerable, especially to problems in imported food, Thompson and others said. Doyle, whose center studies ways to improve food safety, called the nation's growing appetite for imported foods the "coming threat." The United States last year imported about $10 billion more in food, feed and beverages than it exported, according to census figures. Even as imports grow in volume and diversity, the number of FDA inspections is shrinking. Agency inspectors physically examined just 1.3 percent of food imports last year, about three-fourths as much as in 2003. The FDA, meanwhile, says it is concentrating its efforts on areas where the potential threat to the public's health is greatest. "We're applying resources to targeted areas. So in a way, it's not a matter of 'Are you

inspecting one out of 100 or 10 out of 100?' The real issue is if you can define risk. Are you applying the 10 inspectors to the 10 areas of concern?" said FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said. " ... now it's worse, because there are more inspections to do — more facilities — and more food coming into America, which requires more inspections." Tommy Thompson Former secretary of Health and Human Services "Get off your ass and take your government back." ~Rocky Ward

 

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