Approps Democrat calls for food safety investments in audit's wake

The top Democrat on the Appropriations Health subcommittee is calling for heightened investment in food safety after a new audit of 17 recent food recalls raised new concerns.

The Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General warned that the Food and Drug Administration's guidance was not adequate to protect the nation's food supply because it's not enforceable. The audit also said FDA "did not always follow its own procedures for ensuring that the recall process operated efficiently and effectively."

"With 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations and over 3,000 deaths each year caused by foodborne illnesses, it is critical that the FDA have the tools and authority it needs to protect American consumers," Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said in a statement. "The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law last year, is a great first step toward strengthening and modernizing our food safety system, but the Office of Inspector General's report clearly shows that there is room for significant improvement in the FDA's recall of unsafe food, specifically imported food."

DeLauro has been a leading critic of the House-passed agriculture spending bill, which cuts FDA funding by more than $280 million and food safety by about $87 million.

The audit also found that the FDA sometimes failed to: 

• conduct firm inspections or obtain complete information on the contaminated products;

• conduct timely or complete audit checks of consignees;

• review recall strategies and promptly issue notification letters to firms conveying the review results and other essential instructions; and

• witness the disposal of the products or obtain the required documentation showing that the products had been properly disposed of.

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