03 | 28 | 2008 Posted By Pritzker | Ruohonen

Report on FDA and Fresh Spinach Safety

This month, the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform issued a report on their investigation into the Food and Drug Administration’s efforts to protect the safety of packaged fresh spinach entitled, “FDA and Fresh Spinach Safety.” As part of the investigation, the committee requested and received inspection records for all FDA inspections of firms producing packaged fresh spinach from 2001 to 2007. The committee’s investigation of the FDA inspection records revealed the following:
  • Packaged fresh spinach facilities were inspected only once every 2.4 years, less than half of FDA’s stated goals.
  • FDA observed objectionable conditions during 47% of the packaged fresh spinach facility inspections.
  • Despite observing objectionable conditions in packaged fresh spinach facilities, FDA took no meaningful enforcement action.
  • FDA overlooked repeated violations.
  • FDA found repeated problems at multiple facilities operated by the firm implicated in the 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to fresh spinach but took no enforcement actions.
  • In eight cases, packaged fresh spinach facilities denied FDA inspectors access to records or other relevant material. In eight instances, facilities prevented FDA inspectors from conducting a full review of the food safety practices.
  • The scope of the FDA inspections appears too narrow to capture the sources of an E. coli outbreak.
According to these findings, FDA has at best a laissez-faire approach with regard to the fresh spinach industry.  The apparent lack of will on the part of the FDA to enforce the laws is disturbing and something additional funding and regulatory authority cannot alter.

FDA has chosen not to protect consumers from tainted spinach and other food products.  Congress therefore needs to establish a food safety regulatory agency that is responsible for the safety of all food products sold in the United States.  This new agency has to have the authority to take whatever measures are necessary to protect our food system from farm to fork.  This agency also needs to be protected from political influences so that a change of administration can't render the new agency ineffectual.

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