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3M Food Safety
The Alliance for a Stronger FDA – which is backed by industry groups including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Frozen Foods Institute, and the Snack Food Association – was a strong proponent of increased funds for the agency, which were finally agreed in an agriculture appropriations bill passed last month.
The FDA is responsible for the safety of about 80% of the US food supply. It was initially estimated that the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law on January 4 this year, would cost about $1.4bn over five years to implement. Of the $50m FDA funding boost, $39m will be specifically targeted toward measures required by the new law, such as employing about 2,000 additional inspectors and increasing the frequency of plant inspections.
Deputy executive director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA Steven Grossman wrote on the group’s website: “In light of some recent years where FDA received sizable increases, a $50 million increase may not seem like much. But we faced (and survived) a $285 million cut that had passed the House. Further, FDA was one of only a handful of programs in the Agriculture/FDA appropriations bill cluster that received any increase. We applaud the Senate for proposing a $50 million increase for FDA … and we are grateful to the House for accepting this number rather than insisting on cuts.”
Uncertainty over funding provisions for the Food Safety Modernization Act has loomed over the bill, despite repeated bipartisan calls from industry and consumer groups – as well as the FDA itself – for adequate funding.
The Consumer Federation of America and Pew Food Safety Campaign also welcomed the funding increase.
Project director for the Pew Health Group’s Food Safety Campaign Sandra Eskin said: “This critical funding measure will shift the agency from primarily reacting to foodborne contamination incidents to preventing these dangerous outbreaks. The additional resources will also help FDA increase oversight of imported food and establish first-ever produce safety standards designed to avoid problems like the recent illnesses linked to Listeria in cantaloupes.”
1 comment (Comments are now closed)
Confusing numbers, confusing message
If $39M is to be spent to hire 2000 inspectors, I hate to think of what FDA can attract for that amount of money. That's under $20K a year. I recently spoke with FDA regional managers as well as food industry representatives and was led to believe that FDA would be delegating much of the front line inspection work to state and local inspection programs and would rely on the third party auditing of manufacturing facilities internationally. Industry representatives participating in the Conference for Food Protection indicated that it was their impression that FDA was to assure food safety by making sure that the industry has established safety and hazard control systems in place. If this occurs, inspections by regulators such as the FDA aren't as critical as long as the industry exercises active managerial control over the hazards. Sounds good on paper, but the question is whether the industry has the knowledge or the desire to develop a hazard control system from farm to fork or to pay what it will cost to operate such a system.
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Posted by Garry
02 December 2011 | 21h32