Obama Orders FDA Reviews after More Recalls
February 4, 2009 - President Obama's call for a top-to-bottom review of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is good news for consumers, according to Consumers Union (CU), the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
Prompted by the eight deaths and more than 500 illnesses attributed to salmonella in peanut butter produced by PCA, and by the fact that the company apparently shipped product that it knew to be contaminated, Congress has begun considering FDA reform legislation.
The FDA last visited PCA's plant in 2001, at which time PCA was only roasting peanuts. FDA admitted on Jan. 30 that it did not even know the plant had started making peanut butter until 2008, when some of its output was turned back at the Canadian border because it contained metal fragments. As a result, FDA failed to inspect the PCA plant until January 2009, even though it had inspected other producers in the wake of the 2007 Georgia ConAgra salmonella peanut butter disease outbreak.
"The FDA is supposed to be a watchdog for consumers, and for too long, this agency has been coming up short," says Jean Halloran, director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union. "The FDA has been so severely weakened by cutbacks in staffing and funding, and is so poorly equipped to deal with today's food industry, with its mass production and distribution systems and global sourcing of ingredients, that it can no longer keep food safe. The first step in overhauling the FDA should be requiring that processing plants are inspected every year."
A recent Consumers Union poll found that two-thirds of Americans want the FDA to inspect domestic and foreign food-processing facilities at least once a month.
"President Obama's review and his appointment of a new FDA Commissioner will definitely improve FDA's use of its existing resources and authority," affirms Halloran. "However, Congress must also act soon to modernize the agency and give it the additional resources and authority it desperately needs."
To find out how your company can best address or even avoid a product recall, read the following stories at www.consumergoods.com:
Recall Update: FDA Investigates Peanut/Salmonella Scare
In the Event of a Recall, Part 1
In the Event of a Recall, Part 2
Can you Survive a Recall?
Beyond Recalls -- Pushing the Traceability Profitability Envelope in Retail
Prompted by the eight deaths and more than 500 illnesses attributed to salmonella in peanut butter produced by PCA, and by the fact that the company apparently shipped product that it knew to be contaminated, Congress has begun considering FDA reform legislation.
The FDA last visited PCA's plant in 2001, at which time PCA was only roasting peanuts. FDA admitted on Jan. 30 that it did not even know the plant had started making peanut butter until 2008, when some of its output was turned back at the Canadian border because it contained metal fragments. As a result, FDA failed to inspect the PCA plant until January 2009, even though it had inspected other producers in the wake of the 2007 Georgia ConAgra salmonella peanut butter disease outbreak.
"The FDA is supposed to be a watchdog for consumers, and for too long, this agency has been coming up short," says Jean Halloran, director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union. "The FDA has been so severely weakened by cutbacks in staffing and funding, and is so poorly equipped to deal with today's food industry, with its mass production and distribution systems and global sourcing of ingredients, that it can no longer keep food safe. The first step in overhauling the FDA should be requiring that processing plants are inspected every year."
A recent Consumers Union poll found that two-thirds of Americans want the FDA to inspect domestic and foreign food-processing facilities at least once a month.
"President Obama's review and his appointment of a new FDA Commissioner will definitely improve FDA's use of its existing resources and authority," affirms Halloran. "However, Congress must also act soon to modernize the agency and give it the additional resources and authority it desperately needs."
To find out how your company can best address or even avoid a product recall, read the following stories at www.consumergoods.com:
Recall Update: FDA Investigates Peanut/Salmonella Scare
In the Event of a Recall, Part 1
In the Event of a Recall, Part 2
Can you Survive a Recall?
Beyond Recalls -- Pushing the Traceability Profitability Envelope in Retail