For a while, there have been discussions in Washington about why there is both an Agriculture Department, which inspects about 20 percent of the food supply (meat and poultry), and the Food and Drug Administration, which deals with the rest of our food issues. With food problems seemingly getting to be a bigger concern, doesn’t one agency looking at everything make sense?
Right now, frozen cheese pizzas are inspected by the F.D.A., pepperoni pizzas by the Agriculture Department. Fresh eggs are under the jurisdiction of the F.D.A.; egg products go to Agriculture. In 1999, the Government Accountability Office (then called the General Accounting Office) issued a report called “U.S. Needs a Single Agency to Administer a Unified, Risk-Based Inspection System.”
The Injuryboard has been spending last month on food poisoning concerns. With Steve Lombardi continuing to put together some great blogs covering the concerns. It is clear that if streamlining the overseers will make us safer, this idea should get a very hard look. With all of the problems that developed as the FDA seemed more concerned with the anti consumer Bush agenda, this may be the right time to move forward and start protecting all Americans from dangerous foods.
