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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Thursday, May 29, 2008
FDA Delays Creation of Food Safety Database
According to Congress Daily reporter Anna Edney, "The Food and Drug Administration will not meet the September deadline that Congress imposed last year to have a registry up and running to help the agency track food contamination and better understand where to focus its limited resources." The deadline was set in a bill passed last September that aimed to reform FDA's drug safety regime but also contained provisions to enhance food safety.
Congress mandated creation of the registry, because FDA spent much of 2007 chasing food contamination crises instead of heading them off at the pass (spinach, peanut butter, and pet food to name a few). Lawmakers hope the registry will help prevent similar problems in the future.
The Department of Agriculture regulates meat, poultry, and eggs, and FDA regulates pretty much everything else — a big job to be certain. While USDA is required by law to inspect all meat and poultry destined for commerce, FDA-regulated foods do not require inspection before making their way onto grocery store shelves.
Because FDA is not required to inspect all the food under its jurisdiction, and because doing so would be too tall an order, the agency will use a risk-based approach. Put simply, FDA will try to figure out which foods are most susceptible to contamination and where in the supply chain contamination may occur. The agency will then use the information to target its inspection resources. Call it educated guessing.
Both Congress and FDA believe the registry is step one in the risk-based method, according to the Congress Daily article:
FDA has talked about using risk-based inspection methods because funding has not kept pace quickly enough for the agency to inspect food facilities at regular intervals. Lawmakers felt a comprehensive registry would produce data necessary to maximize a risk-based approach.
Of course, FDA will then need to use the information collected in the registry, which will be provided by both companies and local government officials, to police the food industry. Too often FDA has failed to take action on behalf of the public, even when it is aware of food safety problems.
In March, The Washington Post reported, "Since 2001, nearly half of all federal inspections of facilities that package fresh spinach revealed serious sanitary problems, but the Food and Drug Administration did not take 'meaningful' enforcement action" In April 2007, the Post reported, "In the peanut butter case, an agency report shows that FDA inspectors checked into complaints about salmonella contamination in a ConAgra Foods factory in Georgia in 2005. But when company managers refused to provide documents the inspectors requested, the inspectors left and did not follow up."
Posted by Matt Madia
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