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Thursday, July 10, 2008

On Food Tracking, FDA Says "Not Our Responsibility"

The New York Times has an article this morning further underscoring the problems the FDA has tracking the sources of food-borne illness outbreaks. The toll of the current salmonella outbreak has exceeded 1,000 victims "in what officials said Wednesday was the largest food-borne outbreak in the last decade."

Initially, tomatoes were thought to be the culprit of the outbreak. FDA then said it was expanding its search to other types of produce but emphasized tomatoes were still the lead suspect. But according to the article, "Federal investigators have now linked at least some of the outbreak to fresh jalapenos."

The complexity of the supply chain — which shuffles tomatoes and other produce across state and national boundaries for processing, packaging, and distribution — makes identifying the source of this or any other food-borne illness outbreak a major challenge for FDA. A retailer may buy produce from multiple distributors, each of which likely collects a variety of goods from multiple growers.

However, critics say the FDA itself is at least partially to blame. According to two consumer groups, Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Consumer Federation of America, FDA does not have the necessary safeguards in place to prevent and track food-borne illnesses. Those groups say, "Source traceability for produce, written food safety plans for farmers, processors, and packinghouses, and tighter controls on repacking" are necessary but lacking, despite repeated pleas from food safety advocates.

In the case of the salmonella outbreak, more than a month after the first nationwide warning FDA has been unable to tell consumers what type of produce to watch out for, and it isn't even sure whether the source is foreign or domestic.

Despite the worsening public health crisis and the growing embarrassment for FDA, the agency won't be changing its tune on food tracking. According to the Times article, "Dr. David Acheson, the agency's associate commissioner for foods, said in a telephone interview on Monday that the F.D.A. lacked authority to require full trace-back capability, adding, 'It's the industry's responsibility to put that kind of system in place, not ours.' "

Acheson was promoted at FDA last year to lead its food safety efforts. He started with a "commitment to making the wobbly global food-safety system work better," according to The Washington Post.

But based on his comment that FDA is not responsible for food tracking, Acheson clearly fits in well with the Bush administration's hands-off approach to regulating which leaves consumers fending for themselves. Acheson seems determined to make sure FDA repeats its failures.

The Times article also addresses the issue of whether FDA has the authority to track food through the supply chain:

But Dr. David A. Kessler, the F.D.A. commissioner in the Clinton and first Bush administrations, said the agency has the authority to require the industry to trace produce as it travels from "farm to table," but has lacked "the impetus" to do so.

"The technology exists to trace the entire chain of a food product," Dr. Kessler said. "The agency needs to require the industry to put into effect mechanisms to do full trace-back. That regulation could be put in place in months, not years."