Brandon Keim
Science

When the Going Gets Tough, the FDA Closes Shop

The FDA knew for years about problems at the factory and farms responsible for last autumn’s spinach scare and the more recent peanut butter contamination. Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, […]

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The FDA knew for years about problems at the factory and farms responsible for last autumn's spinach scare and the more recent peanut butter contamination.

Overwhelmed by huge growth in the number of food processors and imports, however, the agency took only limited steps to address the problems and relied on producers to police themselves, according to agency documents.

Congressional critics and consumer advocates said both episodes show that the agency is incapable of adequately protecting the safety of the food supply.

FDA officials conceded that the agency's system needs to be overhauled to meet today's demands, but contended that the agency could not have done anything to prevent either contamination episode. [...]

"We have 60,000 to 80,000 facilities that we're responsible for in any given year," Brackett said. Explosive growth in the number of processors and the amount of imported foods means that manufacturers "have to build safety into their products rather than us chasing after them," Brackett said. "We have to get out of the 1950s paradigm."

Maybe Brackett's right about the whole 1950's paradigm. But if the FDA is overwhelmed, why on earth is it closing half its labs, including a Detroit food-inspection facility?

FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food [Washington Post]