by Alexis Cala, PICurrent Assistant Producer
Courtesy of Gaetan Lee
The programs and laws that are supposed to keep U.S. food and products safe are becoming more and more out of date. Many of these laws have not changed since they were written almost a century ago.
During his weekly radio and internet address, President Obama described the limited inspection of food processing plants in the U.S. as a “hazard to the public health”. He also expressed concern over such poor practices not only as a world leader, but as a parent as well.
Between contaminated peppers and tomatoes, plastic in baby formula and the wide-spread peanut recall we’re dealing with now, this nation’s food-safety program is putting us all at risk (read the full story on Associated Press).
How has this spiraled so far out of control?
Part of the problem is a lack of staff and funding, on the other hand there are also too many agencies responsible for food safety. This has made it difficult to share information correctly and identify problems before they become a national outbreak.
Yet, there is really no excuse for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to overlook 95 percent of the 150,000 food-processing plants in the U.S. and countless others overseas. Especially when 76 million people get sick and another 5,000 people die from contaminated food every year. Inspecting only 5 percent of these facilities leaves a lot of room for error.
Instead of throwing their hands up over such a mess, the new administration sees this as a chance to rebuild the food safety program.
Here are some of the major improvements to come:
- Creation of a new Food Safety Working Group; the secretaries of health and agriculture will advise Obama on which food safety laws need to be changed and ensure that these laws are actually enforced.
- New federal meat regulations would ban “downer cows”, or cows that can’t walk, from slaughter. Currently, downer cows can still make it into the food supply on a case-by-case basis, these new laws would strictly prohibit this. These animals pose a higher risk of having mad cow disease, E. coli and other infections.
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