USA Today published two articles about food safety for this weekend’s USA Today. In the first article, titled, "Report: FDA so underfunded, consumers are put at risk," Julie Schmidt reports on a report that was released by an advisory panel to the FDA which concludes:
The Subcommittee concluded that science at the FDA
Today, the recommendations of an advisory committee which was formed to assess the safety of the nation’s food supply will issue a report to President Bush and Congress. An article that appeared last night on the New York Times website provided some insight into the reasons behind the formation of the committee and what will
Newsinferno.com added a post titled, "CDC, FDA, ConAgra or Peter Pan himself, Who’s to Blame for the Underreporting of Sickening and Potentially Deadly Salmonella & E-Coli Food Poisoning Cases?" which offers an interesting discussion on foodborne illness outbreaks.
The federal agency responsible for insuring food safety was also been taken to task for
In an article titled, "The Feds are Still Looking for the E. coli," Salon.com writer Michael Scherer discusses two recent E. coli outbreaks – one in Pennsylvania and one in California. In Scherer’s article, he focuses on USDA’s attempts to find the source of an E. coli outbreak, and its inability, or
An editorial in today’s New York Times illustrates the need for a single government agency responsible for food safety:
It should not take a health crisis to force a reorganizing of America’s food safety apparatus, and there are good reasons to reorganize in a deliberate manner, without a sense of emergency. This is not just
Richard Raymond, the USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety yesterday addressed food and restaurant industry groups. According to an article from the Associated Press:
Combining food safety agencies "is an unnecessary solution," Raymond told an audience of supermarket and restaurant industry executives Wednesday. "The USDA and the FDA have a long history of working together very
The Washington Post reports that it took a book called "The Jungle," a grim assessment of work inside slaughterhouses, plus a campaign by labor unions, medical professionals and consumer groups, to pressure Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act on the same day in 1906.
The food industry was opposed to legislative and regulatory oversight then, as it is in many instances today. That is despite periodic instances of bad publicity, such as that accompanying the recent discovery of fresh spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria. The increased complexity of agriculture and distribution systems, the influx of foods from all over the world and threats to the meat supply such as mad cow disease haven’t shaken the resistance of most producers and sellers to major modification of the U.S.’s food-safety system.Continue Reading No stomach for tougher food oversight
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today celebrated 100 years of protecting consumers by commemorating the Centennial Anniversary of the signing of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA).
“Today, we commemorate the centennial of President Theodore Roosevelt’s signing of the historic legislation that significantly improved the safety of our nation’s food supply,” said Agriculture Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner. “As we stand on the threshold of the second century of ensuring the safety of America’s meat, poultry and egg products, we take pride in our achievements in public health protection and look forward to strengthening our commitment to safeguarding future generations.”Continue Reading USDA Celebrates 100 Years Of Food Safety