2008 Woodie Awards
Officials heed consumer food safety concerns
Report blames FDA understaffing for inspection rate decrease
Sara McIntosh
Issue date: 3/6/07 Section: Campus News
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Would you like some diarrhea with your chicken fingers and spinach salad?
Everyone in the country is concerned about the safety of our foods now that foods like chicken, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, peanut butter, green onions and strawberries are contaminated with toxic agents like E. coli and Salmonella. With so many different foods causing illnesses in people, many people are left wondering: Who is responsible for watching out for the products Americans buy and eat?
An Associate Press analysis of federal records found that food safety inspections that were conducted by the Federal Drug Administration fell 47 percent between 2003 and 2006. However, in a FDA report of the same records, safety tests for foods produced or grown in the United States fell 75 percent.
In 2003, thanks to Congress demanding higher food standards as a means of reducing the "vulnerable" nature of foods to terrorists, the FDA conducted 9,748 tests that year on our foods. Last year, the number of tests was only 2,455.
Some FDA and government officials claim that the reason for the decrease in inspection rates, despite recent food recalls, is due to a lack of man power. The FDA employees responsible for food and safety issues dropped 12 percent, according to the AP analysis.
The problem with food safety is not limited to foods grown in this country. According to Census figures, the United States imported about $10 billion more in food, feed and beverages than it exported last year. With so much food coming in and not as much going out, the diminishing inspectors were only able to "physically examine" 1.3 percent of foods imported last year, which is about three-quarters as much as in 2003.
As if this decrease in inspectors to the increasing amounts of foods coming in wasn't enough, the funding needed to maintain the FDA has been disproportionate to what the actual needs have been for the past three years for the agency. The Government Accountability Office reported that most of the $1.7 billion of federally allocated funds for food safety goes to the Agriculture Department, which only regulates about 20 percent of the nation's food supply. The FDA receives only 24 percent of the total.
Everyone in the country is concerned about the safety of our foods now that foods like chicken, mushrooms, spinach, tomatoes, peanut butter, green onions and strawberries are contaminated with toxic agents like E. coli and Salmonella. With so many different foods causing illnesses in people, many people are left wondering: Who is responsible for watching out for the products Americans buy and eat?
An Associate Press analysis of federal records found that food safety inspections that were conducted by the Federal Drug Administration fell 47 percent between 2003 and 2006. However, in a FDA report of the same records, safety tests for foods produced or grown in the United States fell 75 percent.
In 2003, thanks to Congress demanding higher food standards as a means of reducing the "vulnerable" nature of foods to terrorists, the FDA conducted 9,748 tests that year on our foods. Last year, the number of tests was only 2,455.
Some FDA and government officials claim that the reason for the decrease in inspection rates, despite recent food recalls, is due to a lack of man power. The FDA employees responsible for food and safety issues dropped 12 percent, according to the AP analysis.
The problem with food safety is not limited to foods grown in this country. According to Census figures, the United States imported about $10 billion more in food, feed and beverages than it exported last year. With so much food coming in and not as much going out, the diminishing inspectors were only able to "physically examine" 1.3 percent of foods imported last year, which is about three-quarters as much as in 2003.
As if this decrease in inspectors to the increasing amounts of foods coming in wasn't enough, the funding needed to maintain the FDA has been disproportionate to what the actual needs have been for the past three years for the agency. The Government Accountability Office reported that most of the $1.7 billion of federally allocated funds for food safety goes to the Agriculture Department, which only regulates about 20 percent of the nation's food supply. The FDA receives only 24 percent of the total.
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