Green Bay Press Gazette, WI
08-03-07
Kohl seeks improved food safety protection
By Ellyn Ferguson
Press-Gazette Washington bureau
eferguson@greenbaypressgazette.com
WASHINGTON — Two weeks after Castleberry Food Co. issued a recall of 90
products possibly contaminated with botulism, federal investigators found the
goods still on the shelves of 300 stores.
Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., has proposed a solution — rapid-response teams. He
envisions four to six such regional teams to work with growers, food processors
and local and state officials so that recalls go smoothly. The teams would also
help find the causes of food contamination outbreaks.
Kohl, chairman of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, wants
to pump an additional $48 million into the Food and Drug Administration, which
oversees the safety of 80 percent of what Americans eat. The U.S. Agriculture
Department is responsible for 20 percent of the food supply.
Included are funds for 90 new FDA inspectors to begin replacing the 230
inspectors the agency has lost over the last four years.
He and others in Congress are scrutinizing the sprawling network of federal
agencies responsible for preventing food contamination and tracking it down
once it occurs. The recall of Castleberry products and the discovery of the
chemical melamine from China in pet food thatsickened or killed cats and dogs
are the latest reminders of the importance of food safety.
The 2006 death of a Manitowoc woman and the sickening of dozens of other
Wisconsinites from U.S.-grown spinach contaminated by E. coli bacteria played a
role in Kohl’s efforts to strengthen the FDA.
“We’ve seen shoppers terrified not only for their families but for their pets. I think
the level of confidence (in U.S. food safety) has gone down,” Kohl said.
As part of the process for putting together the spending bill, Kohl held a March
field hearing in Verona to hear from federal, academic and agricultural food
safety experts.
Kohl concluded that the U.S. food system remains strong but faces a number of
challenges, especially in policing food imports from China and other countries.
For example, 80 percent of the seafood Americans eat is imported but the FDA
only has enough inspectors to examine about 1 percent of all such imports,
according to the Government Accountability Office.
Chris Waldrop, food policy director at Consumer Federation of America, said
Kohl and his counterpart in the House, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., would
make a good start by increasing FDA funding to add inspectors.
“You can’t ensure safety of the food supply with a skeleton crew of inspectors,”
Waldrop said.
The House bill, which passed Thursday, would provide the FDA an additional $7
million immediately and free another $28 million next July after the agency
produces a multiyear plan for revamping its food safety procedures.
The Senate is expected to act on Kohl’s bill in the fall. Negotiators will work out
differences between the two.
Waldrop is pleased that Kohl’s bill calls for the FDA to spend at least $6 million of
the additional $48 million to step up research into the nature of food-borne
pathogens and ways to better pinpoint causes of food illnesses.
Michael Pariza, director of the Food Research Institute at the University of
Wisconsin, said Congress is making a step in the right direction in Kohl’s bill as
well as in the House Agriculture spending bill, which would provide a smaller
increase than the Senate version for food safety efforts.
“Sen. Kohl has done his homework,” Pariza said.
Kathleen Glass, also at the Food Research Institute, said there’s a need for
scientists to discover ways to reduce possible contamination of raw food
products and to develop “early warning systems” to alert producers, processors
and others to food safety problems.
Glass said the recent problems with pet food with ingredients from China have
raised public concerns about the safety of imported food for humans and
animals.
There’s room for improvement, but she said food inspections and testing might
not catch everything.
“Who would have thought of testing for melamine?” Glass asked.
Manjit Misra, director of Iowa State University’s Institute of Food Safety and
Security, agreed that food imports pose the biggest challenge for the U.S. food
system. The solution will require several years of work by the United States and
the world community to develop a stronger system for verifying safe production
and sanitary food processes in countries exporting food goods here.
The immediate challenge for Congress could be staying focused on food safety
once the publicity dies down.
“It’s up to those of us in positions of authority to see to it that we’re not governed
by headlines,” Kohl said.