"For the first time in 70 years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released two major requirements for improving food safety.
On Friday, the FDA released two draft rule proposals for food safety that will allow the FDA to shift its focus on preventing, rather than simply reacting, to food borne illnesses. Despite the delay, public health advocates heralded the proposals as a major step in implementing the landmark FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that President Obama signed into law two years ago, giving the FDA one year to put the first policies in place.
The regulations are needed, as evidenced by the series of dangerous food safety slip-ups in recent years that required recalls of spinach, cantaloupe, sprouts, turkey and ground beef with microbes ranging from salmonella to E. coli and listeria, as well as the FDA’s shut-down of the organic peanut butter plant Sunland Inc. in New Mexico, which produced salmonella-tainted peanut butter that sickened 42 consumers nationwide.
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"We have one of the safest food supplies in the world, but we have work to do to stop food borne illnesses before they start," Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA said in a press conference. "While the FDA responds very quickly and effectively in response to outbreaks, containing them and finding their source and taking other necessary actions, we really need to do more than react after the fact. Preventing problems before they cause harm is not only common sense, it is the key to food safety in the 21st century."
The regulations, the first reforms in food safety in more than 70 years, are designed to address gaps in food production and manufacturing processes that leave an estimated 48 million Americans sick each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While not all of these illnesses are reported, the FDA says that nearly 130,000 people who contract a food-related disease are hospitalized and 3,000 die from the illness. So when the deadline to issue regulatory rules in 2012 came and went, two nonprofit organizations, the Center for Food Safety and The Center for Environmental Health criticized the agency for unreasonable delays and filed a lawsuit."
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"Public health and food safety supporters welcome the proposals, and are hopeful the FDA will continue to move forward as quickly as possible.”This is just the beginning, and there is more stuff right behind it in line for approval,” says Sandy Eskin, director of the Safe Food Campaign for the Pew Health Group. ”This took a long time to get passed and may take a while to get it all implemented, but it is a big step. You can be very frustrated because things are moving slowly, but nothing is more frustrating than if things are not moving at all.""
In January 2011, President Barack Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law, signaling the first major update to our nation’s food safety oversight framework since the Great Depression. Despite widespread support for the legislation and its implementation, the Obama administration still has not issued all of the proposed rules under FSMA.
More infoThe Pew Charitable Trusts applauds Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) for her efforts to strengthen food safety protections under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and provide grant funding to help school cafeterias across the nation upgrade their equipment to serve healthy, appealing meals to millions of school children. Funding for both programs was included in a larger bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday.
More info"Being a Minnesotan, Jeff Almer searched for a polite term to describe how he feels about a congressional push to roll back the new food safety laws his family fought for when his elderly mother died after eating salmonella-laced peanut butter in late 2008."
More infoThe Pew Charitable Trusts commends Representative Tom Latham (R-IA) for his leadership in securing approximately $27 million for food safety in the House appropriations bill funding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. The new money would help the FDA protect millions of Americans from the dangers of foodborne illnesses and strengthen consumer confidence in the food supply.
More infoAs a pediatrician, my No. 1 concern is to keep children safe and healthy. Inside the walls of my office, I can provide services and counseling to help do just that, whether by giving an infant her first childhood vaccine, providing a mental health screening to an adolescent patient or counseling parents about how to keep their homes as safe as possible. Unfortunately, there are some threats to children's health that are beyond my control, including the food they consume.
More infoCDC Data Show Alarmingly High Rate of Listeria Infections for Expectant MomsFrom 2004 2009, 29 percent of cases during pregnancy ended in miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death Data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Foodborne
More infoDuring a 15-year span beginning in the mid-1990s, infections in the United States from the pathogen vibrio have increased threefold, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC.
More info"The Food and Drug Administration will not reduce food inspections because of budget cuts, despite warning earlier that it could be forced to eliminate thousands of inspections by Sept. 30."
More info"Twenty-two weeks. That’s how long it took federal health officials to determine the contaminated food source after the first person was infected in a 2011 outbreak of salmonella that swept across 34 states, sickened 136 people and led to one of the largest national recalls of ground turkey."
More infoAn examination of a Salmonella Heidelberg outbreak linked to ground turkey illustrates that health authorities must be more aggressive in their efforts to detect and respond to foodborne illnesses, according to a new report by The Pew Charitable Trusts, titled “Too Slow: An Analysis of the 2011 Salmonella Ground Turkey Outbreak and Recommendations for Improving Detection and Response.” In all, the contaminated food sickened a reported 136 people in the United States, hospitalized 37 and killed one, according to government data.
More infoA multistate outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg infections linked to ground turkey in 2011 sickened 136 people, causing 37 hospitalizations and one death. The Pew Charitable Trusts' analysis of the outbreak found numerous inadequacies in the foodborne illness surveillance system that, if addressed, could help to prevent illnesses and, in some cases, deaths.
More info"Six years ago, Bend resident Chrissy Christoferson's ten-month-old son suffered a ten-day struggle with what first appeared to be a touch of the flu."
More info"Portlander Joe Day tearfully recalled the year his family spent Thanksgiving in a hospital cafeteria, as his sister, suffering from e coli, fought for her life several floors above."
More infoMy name is Jennifer Exley, and I reside in Centennial, Colorado. I am the daughter of Herbert Stevens, who was deeply impacted by listeria-contaminated cantaloupe in August 2011. As you well know, 147 people were sickened and 33 people died in that outbreak — the deadliest in 25 years. My father was one of the so-called lucky survivors. His health and quality of life was, and remains, seriously affected because of something he ate.
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