Recalls of Imported Foods Are Flawed, a Government Audit Reports

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

Government food officials are often sloppy and inattentive in their efforts to ensure that contaminated foods from abroad are withdrawn promptly and completely from the nation’s food supply, according to government investigators.

In an audit of 17 recalls, investigators found that the Food and Drug Administration often failed to follow its own rules in removing dangerous imported foods from the market, according to Daniel R. Levinson, inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. The products included cantaloupes from Honduras contaminated with salmonella, frozen mussel meat from New Zealand infected with listeria and frozen fish from Korea that contained the bacterium that causes botulism.

In one case, more than three months passed from the time the F.D.A. became aware of the contamination to the time a recall was initiated. In another case, the lag was nearly a month. In 13 of the 17 cases, the companies that supplied the tainted goods failed to provide accurate or complete information to their customers so that the products could be withdrawn completely, the audit found.

In a response to the audit, David Dorsey, the F.D.A.’s acting deputy commissioner for policy, planning and budget, said that the landmark food safety law signed in January by President Obama would fix some of these problems. For instance, the law for the first time gave the F.D.A. the authority to order companies to withdraw foods suspected of being contaminated. Until this year, the F.D.A. could only ask manufacturers to withdraw suspect foods.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/business/21recall.html

[CarmanK]

1. Starve the beast, the REPUGS hate regulation!!

The latest GOP budget cuts the FDA enforcement arms by millions. The GOP hate regulations. So, this comes as no surprise. During the Bush years, there were lots of bad products that creeped into the market place undetected. And like all regulation enforcemet, the BUSH admin was slow to respond to violations of public safety by foreign and domestic companies. And lets not Forget Katrina, Bush was notorious for hiring political cronies to head up agencies inefficiently and definitely ineffective. REMEMBER BROWNIe in New Orleans. No surprises here. An d the republican dominated House is not going to make anything better in the area of protecting public safety against business transgressions any time soon.