Food safety

After a new strain of E. coli sickened more than 1,500 in Europe, U.S. authorities moved to tighten inspections on produce. 

A coalition of consumer groups on Wednesday sued the Food and Drug Administration to force it to curtail use of antibiotics in animal agriculture.

The use of drugs to promote animal growth and prevent illnesses in poultry and livestock kept in crowded conditions is causing concerns about drug-resistant strains. The agriculture and drug lobbies say those concerns are overblown.

"Accumulating evidence shows that antibiotics are becoming less effective, while our grocery store meat is increasingly laden with drug-resistant bacteria," said Peter Lehner of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the plaintiffs. "The FDA needs to put the American people first by ensuring that antibiotics continue to serve their primary purpose — saving human lives by combating disease."

The House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee on Tuesday approved major cuts to food safety and nutrition programs, as well as an agency charged with implementing part of the new financial regulatory reform law.

The panel voted to cut the FDA's budget by 11.5 percent, or roughly $285 million, a move that would roll back a string of hard-fought increases that began during the last years of the George W. Bush administration.

Its 2012 spending bill also slashes funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. President Obama requested an increase of more than $100 million for the regulatory agency, but House Republicans responded by cutting some $30 million from last year's spending levels.

The proposal would cut funding for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food assistance program by $832 million, or 12 percent.

The liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated the cuts would force WIC to turn away 325,000 to 475,000 eligible low-income women and young children next year.

The Food and Drug Administration would take an 11.5 percent budget cut under a spending bill that House appropriators released Monday.

The Appropriations Committee released its 2012 spending bill for the FDA and the Agriculture Department ahead of a subcommittee vote scheduled for Tuesday. The FDA would lose roughly $285 million.

Only part of the agency’s funding comes from Congress. It also collects fees from the drug and medical device industries, which pay the agency to review new products for approval. With those fees included, the total FDA budget next year would be $3.7 billion.

A coalition of industry and consumer groups fought during the last years of the Bush administration to significantly increase FDA spending, following a high-profile series of food and drug contaminations.

The Appropriations Committee noted that the proposed cut to the FDA is smaller than the total cut across all programs funded under the same spending bill.

Two-thirds of likely voters support additional funding for federal regulators to carry out their new responsibilities under the food-safety law that went into effect this year, according to a nationwide poll released Thursday.

The Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned the poll ahead of next week's mark-up of the House agriculture budget, which covers the Food and Drug Administration. The poll also found almost three-quarters of respondents felt funding new food-safety measures was worth a 1 percent-to-3 percent increase in the cost of food.

"For too long the FDA, which is responsible for the safety of over 80 percent of the foods we eat, has not had adequate resources or power to protect Americans from dangers in the food supply," Erik Olson, director of food programs for the Pew Health Group, said in a statement. "This poll reflects a strong belief that Americans are willing to pay more to ensure that the FDA is protecting the safety of the food they put on their family's dinner table."

Chickens and turkeys contaminated with Campylobacter bacteria sicken 600,000 Americans every year because of inadequate oversight, says a new study that for the first time ranked the riskiest food contaminations.

The study, from the University of Florida's Emerging Pathogens Institute, ranked 10 pathogen-food combinations according to their public health impact. It found that the 10 combinations cost the economy $8 billion a year and 37,000 Quality-Adjusted Life Years, a measure of disease burden that factors in pain, suffering and a disease's impact on normal activities.

"The number of hazards and scale of the food system make for a critical challenge for consumers and government alike," lead author Michael Batz said in a statement. "Government agencies must work together to effectively target their efforts. If we don't identify which pairs of foods and microbes present the greatest burden, we'll waste time and resources and put even more people at risk."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revamped its website Monday to help consumers track recalled food products, as required by the new food safety law.

The Food Safety Modernization Act gives the FDA power to recall tainted food, quarantine geographical areas and access food producers' records. It was signed into law Jan. 4.

The law requires the creation of a consumer-friendly recall search engine, which is now accessible from the FDA website. The revamped site also features frequently asked questions about the legislation, including videos and graphics explaining how it will be implemented and information about upcoming public meetings.

About 128,000 Americans are hospitalized every year because of contaminated food, according to government figures, and 3,000 die.

The Food and Drug Administration will consider warnings for artificial food colorings, The New York Times writes.

A new report details Americans' health by county, The Associated Press writes.

The Washington Post looks at the controversy surrounding the creation of state health insurance exchanges.

A Los Angeles woman faces up to 10 years in prison for a $6.2 million Medicare fraud scheme, The Associated Press reports.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's (R) administration still has few details on its Medicaid overhaul, nj.com reports.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) writes in the Savannah Morning News about his opposition to healthcare reform.

The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday his panel would take up legislation to combat counterfeiting in response to a “60 Minutes” probe that found tens of thousands of fake prescription pills enter the U.S. each year.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said his legislation would give the Justice Department better tools to combat the sale of counterfeit drugs.

States vary greatly in how well they report foodborne illnesses, according to a new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, leaving Americans at risk. 

The report, titled "All Over the Map," gave seven states "A"s for aggressively tracking foodborne illnesses, while 14 states were given an "F."

"States that aggressively investigate outbreaks and report them to CDC can help nail down the foods that are responsible for making people sick," CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal said in a statement. "But when states aren't detecting outbreaks, interviewing victims, identifying suspect food sources, or connecting with federal officials, outbreaks can grow larger and more frequent, putting more people at risk."

The report used 10 years' worth of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and CSPI to assign a letter grade to the 50 states. States that reported few outbreaks of foodborne illnesses were given the worst grades, under the premise that they're not avoiding foodborne illness but rather doing a poor job tracking them.

Oregon and Minnesota, states that CSPI says have "excellent laboratory facilities and public health departments" that quickly interview people who are believed to have been sickened, earned an "A". So did five states that report high numbers of outbreaks —Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Washington, and Wyoming.

Fourteen states earned "F"s because they reported just one outbreak per 1 million people: Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

The report also mentions what it calls a "troubling trend": The percentage of solved outbreaks — those with both an identified food and an identified pathogen — declined from 1998 through 2007. 

The safety of the nation's food supply made national news last year as Congress debated — and ultimately passed — food safety legislation.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), one of the law's harshest critics, said during the debate that "America has the safest food supply in the world, and it has never been safer." However, the CDC estimates that one in six Americans — about 48 million people — suffer from a foodborne illness every year. The CDC says 128,000 end up in the hospital from the illnesses each year and 3,000 die.