Food Safety Collaboration Urged by Report
Improving food safety in the United States requires greater collaboration among federal agencies and continued study of consolidation to provide more integrated oversight, according to the latest report on food safety regulation by the General Accounting Office (GAO).
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The report, obtained by food safety law firm PritzkerOlsen, P.A., recommends that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, in consultation with the federal agencies that have food safety responsibilities, should develop a government-wide performance plan for food safety.
"The performance plan should include results-oriented goals and performance measures for food safety oversight throughout the federal government, as well as a discussion about strategies and resources. It should be updated on an annual basis,'' the report said.
President Obama's Food Safety Working Group, which started in 2009, received positive notice by the GAO. The creation of the working group "elevated food safety as a national priority, demonstrated strong commitment and top leadership support, and was designed to foster interagency collaboration,'' the report said. But still undeveloped is a performance plan for food safety that provides a comprehensive picture of the federal government's dispersed food safety efforts. The working group's July 2009 "key findings" was not "results oriented,'' nor did it include performance measures, the GAO report said.
Any review should consider alternative organizational structures, such as a single food safety agency, a single food safety inspection agency and a data collection and risk analysis center, according to the GAO. In other words, and as the title of the report says: "The Food Safety Working Group is a Positive First Step but Government-wide Planning is Needed to Address Fragmentation.''
