These are just some of the steps the agency has taken to make for a
safer food supply. All of FDA’s efforts are not enough for critics from
Congress and advocacy groups, who still want FDA to get more money and
people to be even more active in this area.
On Prevention:
On the Prevention front, FDA says it is establishing offices in China,
India, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. FDA also took part
in a delegation to China geared toward addressing food safety issues in
the U.S., China, and beyond.
FDA released and provided training related
to CARVER, a self-assessment tool that industry can use to minimize the
risk of intentional contamination. They also met with federal, state,
local, tribal, and territorial partners to discuss food protection. FDA
will hire an ‘International Notification Coordinator’ to handle
coordination of information exchange between FDA and counterpart
authorities in other countries.
FDA also approved the use of
irradiation of iceberg lettuce and spinach for the control of food
pathogens. Laboratory advancements include the development of methods
to detect melamine and cyanuric acid in feed and feed ingredients and
the use of genetic analysis to identify various Salmonella strains.
Finally, FDA says it posted a food package database on the web to
provide information on package defect classification and
identification.
On Intervention:
As for intervention, FDA inspected high-risk domestic food
establishments and carried out a risk-based inspection of a canning
facility and identified product contaminated with C. botulinum spores,
which resulted in a recall. Additionally, FDA has developed technology
that allows for the rapid detection of E. coli and Salmonella in food.
Recognizing that it will never have all the resources it will need to
inspect all the companies it needs to as often as needed, FDA got
started on a voluntary third-party certification program for food and
animal feed. The FDA Web site of adverse drug events will be expanded
to include adverse feed events, which will allow FDA to more quickly
respond to outbreaks of feedborne disease in animals. Finally, the FDA
and U.S. Customs and Border Protection jointly polished off the
procedures for food companies to give prior notice of imported food
shipments, a requirement that was part of the post-9/11 changes in the
law.
On Response:
The Response strategy finds FDA working with both industry and the
public to identify ‘best practices’ for tracing fresh produce along the
supply chain. FDA has developed tools to track emergency response
resources, which they say enhances their ability to coordinate a
response to foodborne illness events. FDA also signed cooperative
agreements with six U.S. states to form a “Rapid Response Team” for
handling response to food supply threats.
In addition to working with
state and local counterparts on the melamine issue, FDA has added two
employees that serve in the role of emergency/complaint response
coordinators, tasked with canvassing 2,100 vendors of Asian products to
locate Chinese infant formula and milk-related products.
Also in
response to melamine, FDA maintains a list on its website of products
to avoid.
