Food sickens 48 million Americans a year, with 128,000 hospitalized and 3,000 killed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. Many of the victims of contaminated food are those with under-developed or weakened immune systems, such as children and the elderly. The U.S. had 37 recalls of fruits and vegetables in 2011, up from two in 2005. The U.S. government has played a role in food inspection for a little more than a century. In 1905, Upton Sinclair penned “The Jungle,” a scathing book about the Chicago meatpacking industry. The next year, Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, which proved ineffective. In 1938, after more than 100 people died from the antibiotic sulfanilamide, Congress passed the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, strengthening the FDA. For the first time, a federal agency had the power to inspect, approve or reject all food and pharmaceutical products.
During the past two decades, the food industry has taken over much of the FDA’s role in ensuring that what Americans eat is safe. The agency can’t come close to vetting its jurisdiction of $1.2 trillion in annual food sales. In 2011, the FDA inspected 6 percent of domestic food producers and just 0.4 percent of importers. Flaws in the U.S. inspection system are magnified when food originates in other countries. In Mexico, some fields contaminated by animal and human feces and dirty water aren’t being monitored by government inspectors or third-party auditors. Almost half of the vegetables and 26 percent of the fruit imported into the U.S. last year came from Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service says.
The food industry hires for-profit inspection companies -- known as third-party auditors -- who aren’t required by law to meet any federal standards and have no government supervision. Some of these monitors choose to follow guidelines from trade groups that include ConAgra Foods, Kraft Foods and Wal-Mart. The private inspectors that companies select often check only those areas their clients ask them to review. Auditors evaluate their clients using standards selected by the companies that pay them, says Mansour Samadpour, owner of IEH Laboratories, which does testing for the FDA. The auditors sometimes follow a checklist that the company they’re inspecting has helped write. That means they can miss deadly pathogens lurking in places they never examined. Most companies won’t let third-party auditors look for pathogens. They don’t want results shutting them down. What for-hire auditors do is cloaked in secrecy; they don’t have to make their findings public. Sometimes, what passes for inspection in the food industry isn’t inspection at all; it’s more like bookkeeping. In many cases, auditors award top safety ratings without testing production facilities for bacteria, says former auditor Jeffrey Kornacki. Sometimes, auditors don’t set foot in production areas of the companies they report in audits as safe, Kornacki says. In some cases, for-hire auditors have financial ties to executives at companies they’re reviewing. AIB International, a Manhattan, Kansas, auditor that awarded top marks to producers that sold toxic food, has had board members who are top managers at companies that are clients.
“There’s a fundamental conflict,” says David Kessler, a lawyer and physician who was FDA commissioner from 1990 to 1997. “We all know about third-party audit conflicts. We’ve seen it play out in the financial world. You can’t be tied to your auditors. There has to be independence.”
The FDA is trying, so far without success, to wrest back control of food inspection from the industry. Instead, the food industry lobbied for, and won, enactment of a law in January 2011 that expanded the role of auditors -- and foreign governments -- in vetting producers and distributors of food bound for the U.S. The Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed Congress with bi-partisan support, will allow the FDA to certify private companies to audit producers of imported food on its behalf. The law mandates that these auditors submit their reports to the agency. These rules don’t apply to domestic inspection companies, which still won’t be approved by the FDA and don’t report their findings.
Companies can take steps to prevent foodborne infections -- although those measures cost money that producers and retailers aren’t always willing to spend. “It’s retailers and food service companies who have to say, ‘Here are three pennies for safety,”’ says Samadpour, the lab owner who does testing for the FDA. “Only a few do it. The rest pressure growers to cut costs, and safety is the first victim.”
Full article here
During the past two decades, the food industry has taken over much of the FDA’s role in ensuring that what Americans eat is safe. The agency can’t come close to vetting its jurisdiction of $1.2 trillion in annual food sales. In 2011, the FDA inspected 6 percent of domestic food producers and just 0.4 percent of importers. Flaws in the U.S. inspection system are magnified when food originates in other countries. In Mexico, some fields contaminated by animal and human feces and dirty water aren’t being monitored by government inspectors or third-party auditors. Almost half of the vegetables and 26 percent of the fruit imported into the U.S. last year came from Mexico, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service says.
The food industry hires for-profit inspection companies -- known as third-party auditors -- who aren’t required by law to meet any federal standards and have no government supervision. Some of these monitors choose to follow guidelines from trade groups that include ConAgra Foods, Kraft Foods and Wal-Mart. The private inspectors that companies select often check only those areas their clients ask them to review. Auditors evaluate their clients using standards selected by the companies that pay them, says Mansour Samadpour, owner of IEH Laboratories, which does testing for the FDA. The auditors sometimes follow a checklist that the company they’re inspecting has helped write. That means they can miss deadly pathogens lurking in places they never examined. Most companies won’t let third-party auditors look for pathogens. They don’t want results shutting them down. What for-hire auditors do is cloaked in secrecy; they don’t have to make their findings public. Sometimes, what passes for inspection in the food industry isn’t inspection at all; it’s more like bookkeeping. In many cases, auditors award top safety ratings without testing production facilities for bacteria, says former auditor Jeffrey Kornacki. Sometimes, auditors don’t set foot in production areas of the companies they report in audits as safe, Kornacki says. In some cases, for-hire auditors have financial ties to executives at companies they’re reviewing. AIB International, a Manhattan, Kansas, auditor that awarded top marks to producers that sold toxic food, has had board members who are top managers at companies that are clients.
“There’s a fundamental conflict,” says David Kessler, a lawyer and physician who was FDA commissioner from 1990 to 1997. “We all know about third-party audit conflicts. We’ve seen it play out in the financial world. You can’t be tied to your auditors. There has to be independence.”
The FDA is trying, so far without success, to wrest back control of food inspection from the industry. Instead, the food industry lobbied for, and won, enactment of a law in January 2011 that expanded the role of auditors -- and foreign governments -- in vetting producers and distributors of food bound for the U.S. The Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed Congress with bi-partisan support, will allow the FDA to certify private companies to audit producers of imported food on its behalf. The law mandates that these auditors submit their reports to the agency. These rules don’t apply to domestic inspection companies, which still won’t be approved by the FDA and don’t report their findings.
Companies can take steps to prevent foodborne infections -- although those measures cost money that producers and retailers aren’t always willing to spend. “It’s retailers and food service companies who have to say, ‘Here are three pennies for safety,”’ says Samadpour, the lab owner who does testing for the FDA. “Only a few do it. The rest pressure growers to cut costs, and safety is the first victim.”
Full article here
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