The Food and Drug Administration Trounced Again

We assume that our food is safe. When we are at the supermarket, few thoughts are given to whether that purchase is safe to eat. Our assumption - perhaps mistakenly - is that there are protections in place to safeguard the public. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is entrusted with that mandate to protect the consumer from unsafe products.

It is evident, through the recent pet food disaster and regular product recalls, that the FDA is stressed to fulfill its role:

“WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Preparations for a biological attack and repeated outbreaks of food poisoning have interfered with efforts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to improve the safety of fresh produce, according to a report released on Friday.

The agency is also unclear on what it plans to do to shape up, the Government Accountability Office said.”

link: FDA faulted for produce oversight

This is not the first time that the FDA has been so severely criticized. In 2007, for example, a report cited that American lives were at risk from the FDA being understaffed and underfunded. It does not seem to be a political imperative to resolve this problem. This is not a ‘hot issue’ on the presidential campaign trail. However, the present contaminated milk disaster in China is an indication of the chaos from just one unsafe, contaminated product. Thousands of children are sick; some have died. In the United States, the FDA cannot do its job adequately; and government officials are focused elsewhere.

Catherine Forsythe