Blue Herald » FDA Knew of Dangers to Food

FDA Knew of Dangers to Food

QuestionGirl April 23rd, 2007 - 9:46 am

Yah, you close 7 of 11 labs and things aren’t going to get any better.

From a previous post:
WASHINGTON, DC, February 15, 2007 (ENS) - Over congressional objections, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, is closing seven of its 13 laboratories across the country, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, PEER, a national association of employees in natural resources agencies.

The closures will be completed during the next few months, before the new Congress can act to block the shutdowns through the appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, PEER said.

According to briefings of agency staff, facilities in Denver, Detroit, Philadelphia, Kansas City, San Francisco, Winchester, Massachusetts; and San Juan, Puerto Rico will be closed.

These laboratories are often the first line of defense in detecting and combating potential bio-terrorist attacks on foods.

In addition, they trace tampering with food and medicines and respond to public health threats, such as E. coli and listeria outbreaks, and support agency compliance inspections and enforcement actions.

The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.

Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.

Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.