Food Poisoning Law Blog : Food Poisoning Lawyer & Attorney : PritzkerLaw : Food Safety, Outbreaks & Recalls

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has opened a post in Mexico City and the Department of Homeland Security has created a new center in Washington, D.C., devoted to ensuring the safety of foods imported to the United States.

The moves are in keeping with the Obama Administration's focus on protecting Americans from disease wrought by contaminated food.

Homeland Security's Commercial Targeting and Analysis Center (CTAC) for Import Safety is operating under the direction of Customs and Border Protection.  It was created on the recommendation of President Obama’s Food Safety Working Group, which had promised new ventures of cooperation between federal agencies.

The CTAC will specifically target shipments of imported cargo, including food, for possible safety violations.  Its partners providing on-site expertise will include the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

FDA's new Mexico City operation is the 10th international post and third to open in Latin America. Mexico provides one third of fresh fruit and vegetables consumed in the United States.

Dr. Margaret Hamburg, Obama's appointee to head FDA, said in an agency news release that the office will be mutually beneficial to both countries. Staff will work with local industries that ship food and medical products to the U.S. to improve their understanding of quality demands.

There are other plans for the office to collaborate with Mexican officials on the use of the latest laboratory and preventative food safety techniques, the press release said.

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The U.S. congresswoman who chairs the House Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee remains convinced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be stripped of its food safety responsibility.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who also sits on the influential House Appropriations and Budget Committee, repeated her criticism of the FDA this week, just days after the agency said it was making progress under the Food Protection Plan it launched in 2007 to improve its effectiveness.

U.S. Food Law Report said this week that the FDA's progress report contained a list of some impressive achievements -- including the creation of foreign field offices and pushing ahead with irradiation for leafy greens to kill potentially deadly pathogens. But the newsletter also said the FDA still has a long way to go in showing progress in the area of responding to outbreaks of foodborne illness.

DeLauro, who was quoted in U.S. Food Law Report, said real progress in food safety hinges on allowing the FDA to focus on medical product safety. The FDA's food safety responsibilities should be shifted to a separate agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, she said.

"While the FDA will contend that they are making progress on food safety, it is progress based on an outdated system and an outdated regulatory structure,'' DeLauro said. "The long-term viability of these so-called reforms remains in doubt given that food safety will constantly be compteing for attention and resources with medical product safety under the FDA."

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Before she has even had time to brush the dust off of her shoes after leaving the campaign trail, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York) is in the news again.  This time for her reaction to the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak that has sickened over 1200 people.

As most people know, particularly those who ordered a BLT last month and got a BL, the FDA initially believed tomatoes were the source of the outbreak.  Monday, the FDA announced that one jalapeno pepper sample had a positive genetic match with the outbreak-strain of Salmonella Saintpaul.  A recall of jalapeno peppers was issued; restaurants quit using raw jalapeno and serano peppers; and Hillary (hereinafter referred to as Senator Clinton) wrote a letter.

In her letter to Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach, FDA Commissioner, Senator Clinton expressed concern about the FDA’s inability to localize the source of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, saying “despite the work of investigators from your agency, we still cannot provide assurances to consumers that their produce, especially certain types of peppers, is safe.”

Senator Clinton also commented on the FDA’s progress on implementing the Food Protection Plan:

In November 2007, your agency announced a Food Protection Plan that would improve the FDA’s ability to prevent, intervene, and respond to food-related outbreaks.  This plan detailed concrete actions that the agency would be taking to ensure safety from the earliest points in the production phrase through consumption.  Earlier this month, you released a six-month progress summary.  Given the number of serious food outbreaks that have occurred in the past few years, I am disappointed at the lack of progress you have made in implementing the Food Protection Plan.

Also in the letter, Senator Clinton pointed out specific areas in which the FDA has failed to live up to the goals of the Food Protection Plan.  Those areas include setting up meetings with sates, food industry representatives, and consumer groups to discuss ways of preventing outbreaks, and negotiating with neighboring countries (Canada and Mexico).  She also pointed out the lack of improvement in regard to traceability of outbreaks.

After reviewing the FDA’s progress report on implementing the Food Protection Plan, Senator Clinton asked four questions of Dr. von Eschenbach to provide more details:

1. What is your schedule for meetings with stakeholders and industry regarding traceability? With which groups will you be meeting?

2. Given that models exist for traceability, when you will release a “best practices” document?

3. What is your schedule for meetings and implementation of the Food Protection Plan with our neighboring nations, particularly Canada?

4. You have scheduled a meeting with the states on food safety for August 2008. What is the agenda for this meeting, and what does the FDA anticipate as action steps that will emerge from this conference?

Perhaps pressure from Congress, including senators such as Senator Clinton, will prompt the FDA to finally live up to the standards and goals it has set in order to protect the nation from foodborne illness. Then again, maybe the FDA is still working on what the definition of food safety is.

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