FDA: Yesterday’s hearing, tomorrow’s results
By Gina Spadafori
July 18, 2007
As always, we’re extremely grateful to those who send us links to good stuff for sharing. Bringing up from comments (thanks, Maureen!), this L.A. Times piece on yesterday’s FDA hearing:
The Food and Drug Administration would be unable to ensure the nation’s food safety if a plan to close half of its testing laboratories goes through as suggested, a House panel was told Tuesday.
The agency has come under increased scrutiny in recent months because of a succession of well-publicized problems with food, including peanut butter contaminated with salmonella, spinach contaminated with E. coli and fish imported from China that was found to have traces of illegal antibiotics.
In testimony Tuesday before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, congressional investigators criticized the reorganization plan and said they doubted the FDA’s ability to police food imports.
“The FDA lacks sufficient resources and authority to be effective,” said David Nelson, chief investigator for the Energy and Commerce Committee.
In his opening statement, Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and investigations, said the FDA inspected fewer than 1% of the food imports and took samples from a fraction of those.
Investigators said much of the problem stemmed from understaffed laboratories and the fact that field offices were not authorized to inspect shipments of products that were not on an FDA watch list. They argued that closing seven of 13 laboratories, as FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach is suggesting, would weaken the agency’s ability to police imports.
“Stop the reorganization. They have given us no justification for the closures,” Nelson said. “There is a lot of indication that it will cost more than it will save.”
Here’s the rest. We’re still looking for the transcript. Emily at Itchmo liveblogged the hearing in a marathon of flying fingers. We do like this, from Committee Chair John Dingell’s opening statement:
How has FDA responded to this increasing threat to American consumers? They want to name a “Food Czar” without giving him any real authority, propose a sweeping reorganization of their field inspection operations, and close some of their most crucial laboratories that expose dangerous imports.
As we will hear from Committee staff, who have interviewed numerous FDA field employees, as well as from a number of witnesses with actual hands-on experience at our Nation’s ports, the FDA reorganization proposals will shift critical resources away from ports-of-entry, actions that will in all likelihood worsen our food safety crisis. Further, their proposal will eliminate much of the scarce laboratory expertise currently found at FDA.
The Federal food safety system is in dire need of reform—it is fragmented, understaffed, inefficient, and lagging in state-of-the-art tracking systems. Furthermore, FDA has largely abdicated its regulatory role to the food industry itself, which is expected to police itself.
OK, so … now what? I hate to sound cynical, but it does seem that Washington is too much in the pockets of big business to do much more than talk about change.
Does that mean that the FDA is in BIG TROUBLE?
Comment by jill — July 18, 2007 @ 11:03 am
Looks like HHS is taking over food safety panel?
They need to make Michael Leavitt the boss, and merge the FDA into HHS.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Poli.....id=3389249.
They also need to get off the China only list, and put Dominican Republic, India, Mexico on it .. there’s more than *just* China.
They just need us to *not* pay attention to the rest of components in this sordid state of affairs.
Comment by Ann H — July 18, 2007 @ 11:14 am
Looks like our esteemed president is setting up an import safety panel. Check our cnn.com/us (sorry don’t know how to do the Tiny URL) for further info. I feel safer already!
Comment by Carol — July 18, 2007 @ 11:51 am
Nothing will be safe until FDA or THE NEW FOOD agency can display the country or countries of origin of major ingredients on each bag of food .A traceback code should be on every retail product. With a lack of required FDA (20%now)recordkeeping to monitor the quality of food or ingredients imported ,how can everyone ever be safe.
Comment by William Kanitz — July 18, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Carol - the webmaster fixed things so that you don’t have to do TinyURL any more. If it’s too long, it will automatically be truncated.
So post away! G!
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 18, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
Here’s the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/.....ef=topnews
Comment by Carol — July 18, 2007 @ 2:27 pm
Lou Dobbs is covering the Food Supply issue in a few minutes on CNN. Tune in!
Comment by Barb — July 18, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
”. . . countries of origin of major ingredients on each bag of food . . . “
keep in mind, it is the seasoning in veggie booty from China that is contaminated.
Comment by straybaby — July 18, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Actually, if you take a look at William Kanitz’s website (if I’m understanding this correctly), you could put an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tag)on pretty much any product and then be able to pull up a computer file of where each and every ingredient in it came from. Is that right, William?
And would that get around the (unfortunate) loopholes in COOL that say that certain “ingredients” in food don’t need to be COOL-identified (ditto for foods once they’re “processed”, as I understand it). (If Elaine is around, she might be familiar with these particular nuances of COOL.)
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 18, 2007 @ 3:18 pm
Oops! The URL from William’s signature (one of the pages there, at least):
https://www.scoringcontainers.com/scoringcontainers/index.cfm
Comment by The OTHER Pat — July 18, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
Comment by Barb — July 18, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
GO LOU GO!!!!
Comment by straybaby — July 18, 2007 @ 3:23 pm
I see Prez. Bush JUST woke up from his ~coma~
& signed an Executive Order for health safety investigation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20.....0718195555
Comment by Kat — July 18, 2007 @ 4:02 pm
Here’s the link for the Executive Order:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.....718-4.html
Comment by Kat — July 18, 2007 @ 4:05 pm
Bart Stupak was pumped!
Comment by petlover — July 19, 2007 @ 8:21 am
Agree with petlover. Sen. Bart Stupak was great at the hearing. The witnesses were well chosen and they came through. The civil service staff will be hung out to dry in their agencies if the Dems don’t keep the majority in 2008; they were that honest about the deterioration of the FDA and were very specific. That was one very long, very thorough hearing. He seemed entirely disgusted when he dismissed Von Eschenbach and the last panel.
Comment by Maureen — July 19, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
Sorry if this important suspected botulism product recall has already been posted here. I did a quick scan and didn’t see it. This was posted on the USDA’s website today:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_...../index.asp
Georgia Firm Recalls Canned Meat Products That May Contain Clostridium botulinum
Recall Release CLASS I RECALL
FSIS-RC-033-2007 HEALTH RISK: HIGH
WASHINGTON, July 19, 2007 - Castleberry’s Food Company, an Augusta, Ga., establishment owned by Bumble Bee Foods, LLC, is voluntarily recalling approximately 721,389 pounds of canned meat products that may contain Clostridium botulinum as a result of an equipment malfunction, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today.
The following products are subject to recall: [View Labels | PDF Document, 1.2MB]
* 10-ounce cans of “Castleberry’s BUNKER HILL, ORIGINAL Chili NO BEANS.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “5/22/2009.”
* 15-ounce cans of “Castleberry’s CHILI WITH BEANS.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “5/17/2009.”
* 10-ounce cans of “Castleberry’s HICKORY SMOKED, OVEN ROASTED, WITH SKINS, BARBECUE PORK IN BARBECUE SAUCE.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “5/17/2009.”
* 15-ounce cans of “Cattle Drive CHILI WITH BEANS.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “4/30/2009,” “5/10/2009” or “5/21/2009.”
* 15-ounce cans of “Meijer CORNED BEEF HASH.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped a “best by” date of “5/3/2009.”
* 15-ounce cans of “MORTON HOUSE Corned Beef Hash.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “5/3/2009.”
* 15-ounce cans of “SOUTHERN HOME CORNED BEEF HASH.” Each label bears the establishment number “EST. 195” inside the USDA seal of inspection. The bottom of each can is stamped with a “best by” date of “5/3/2009.”
The canned meat products were produced between April 30 and May 22, 2007 and were distributed to retail establishments in Alabama, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
The problem regarding the equipment malfunction was discovered during an investigation into illnesses in Indiana and Texas. The investigation led to a recall by the Food and Drug Administration of three types of meatless hotdog chili sauce. There have been no reports of illness from consumption of the products listed in this news release.
Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin. Symptoms of botulism include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle weakness. The illness can cause paralysis, respiratory failure and death. Symptoms usually occur from 18 to 36 hours after eating contaminated food. Anyone concerned about an illness should contact a physician.
Consumers with questions about the recall should contact company Consumer Hotline at (888) 203-8446. Media with questions about the recall should contact the company public affairs representative Della Sweetman at (619) 200-0436 or Doug McGraw at (212) 453-2202.
Comment by Maureen — July 19, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
“Botulism is a rare but serious paralytic illness …”
lol at the “rare”..not anymore..this must be the 3rd or 4th recall that mentions botulism
Comment by newlurker — July 19, 2007 @ 6:55 pm
Botulism, eh? Yup! Can I have some tetradotoxin with mine in my monkfish? And some of that Cesium-137 that was in one of the FDA rejected imports.
Eeeekkk…
j/k but not very funny.
Comment by Dennis — July 19, 2007 @ 8:15 pm