GAO: FDA designation doesn’t ensure safety
Filed under: Government, Hot Health Headline, Studies
On his blog Cold Truth (and on AOL News), Andrew Schneider brought our attention to the GAO’s recent investigation into the well-known FDA loophole created by the “generally regarded as safe” or GRAS designation.
The GRAS designation is meant to spare manufacturers lengthy and expensive testing that might otherwise slow the flow of new products to market. It’s conferred, Schneider writes, as long as a “scientific panel selected by the manufacturer can rule that no harm will result from the intended use of an additive.”
Schneider’s version of the highlights of the GAO report:
- The FDA generally doesn’t know about most of these determinations of “generally regarded as safe,” or GRAS, because companies are not required to inform the agency.
- The FDA has not taken steps that could help ensure the safety of additives listed as GRAS.
- Food products may contain numerous ingredients, including GRAS substances, making it difficult, if not impossible, for public health authorities to attribute a food safety problem to a specific GRAS additive.
- The FDA does not systematically reconsider the safety of GRAS substances as new information or new methods for evaluating safety become available.
The GAO said nanomaterials and imported additives were of particular concern.
(Hat tip to OMB Watch in general and Matthew Madia in particular)
Schneider: FDA lacks resources to keep food safe
Writing for AOL News (and his blog, Cold Truth) Andrew Schneider writes that the hydrolyzed vegetable protein recall reminds us that, no matter what was said in the wake of last year’s peanut butter recall, the FDA still doesn’t have the ability to pay close attention to source foods that are destined to end up in hundreds of different products.
In this most recent case, it was a test by a supplier, not an FDA representative, that caught the contaminated additive.
The FDA conducted an investigation at the company’s Las Vegas facility after a food producer that bought the flavoring from Basic Food Flavors notified federal agents that it had found Salmonella Tennessee in the vegetable protein.
In answer to the criticism about its actions during the peanut episode, FDA officials said they have no way knowing to whom suppliers sell their food products, what those products are and where they’re sold. The FDA says it doesn’t have the personnel or the needed regulations to handle the millions of shipments made within the food industry every week.
But what was seen with the dangerous peanuts, and what we’re beginning to see with the flavoring agent, is that producers of end products — those items that actually reach store and warehouse shelves — are declaring their own voluntary recalls.
Airport dining proves to be a food safety challenge
Filed under: Hot Health Headline, Public health, Public records
USA Today’s Alison Young reviewed inspection reports for hundreds of restaurants at 10 airports and found a large number of critical violations, including 42 percent of the restaurants reviewed at Seattle-Tacoma and 77 percent of restaurants reviewed at Reagan National Airport.
The most common culprits? “Grab-and-go” sandwiches and related foods, which aren’t kept cold enough to ward off food-borne pathogens.
Young notes that it’s hard to pinpoint the number sickened by airport sandwiches, as it’s difficult to track foodborne illness back to a specific source even when the customers aren’t constantly boarding airplanes and taking off for all corners of the earth.
Scott Hensley, on NPR’s Shots blog, recently noted an FDA warning to a Denver kitchen that prepared thousands of meals a day for airlines:
We can sum up the findings in the LSG SkyChefs facility a few months back with a four-letter abbreviation used to describe the roaches and other insects found there: TNTC.
That stands for Too Numerous To Count.
Hensley runs down some of the other problems found there and a reaction from the company spokeswoman.
AHCJ resources
Lifting the shroud: Using multiple-cause-of-death data
Fatal Food: A study of illness outbreaks
Recent news
Loophole allows E. coli-tainted meat to be sold
Meat, dairy products transported in unsafe temperatures, overlooked by inspectors
Airlines delay testing of onboard water
Salmonella outbreak: A selection of recent stories
N.Y. school districts not meeting federal guidelines on cafeteria inspections
Private companies, not the FDA, increasingly perform food safety inspections
Web sites
Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
Outbreak Alert! Database
NYT’s Moss continues to follow E. coli story
The national gag reflex alert level has slipped back to “yellow” in the months since New York Times reporter Michael Moss’ epic rendering (pun intended) of the journey that meat (and the E. coli that tags along) take on the way to your hamburger patty, but that doesn’t mean Moss has abandoned the issue.
Moss’ latest reports have followed the evolution of the issues raised by his report (and related earlier efforts). Since that first story, Tyson’s started to clean up its act (or at least let others clean that act up for them), the pinpointing of another outbreak ratcheted up the pressure and lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require that ground beef components be tested for E. coli.
Report says food-borne illnesses hit kids hardest
With the Senate expected to consider food safety legislation that gives the FDA additional oversight and enforcement powers, two organizations have turned a spotlight on the issue.
Poll and research data released today from the Make Our Food Safe Campaign and the Center for Foodborne Illness look at the long-term impacts of acute food-borne disease [Summary | Full report] and what the public thinks should be done to improve safety. The Center for Foodborne Illness says its report demonstrates the need for the reform of what it calls America’s “broken” food safety system.
According to CFI’s report, long-term effects are most likely to hit children, the elderly and the immune-suppressed.
The Make Our Food Safe campaign polled four states (Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio) and found support for the federal government enacting new food safety measures, such as:
- Report tests that show contamination
- Tracing system
- Standards for produce growers
- FDA mandatory recall authority
- Equal food safety standards for imports
- Broad access to food company records
- FDA inspections every 6-12 months
The Make Our Food Safe campaign is a coalition of public health organizations, consumer organizations, and groups representing the families of victims of food-borne illness, including the American Public Health Association, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Consumers Union and others. The Center for Foodborne Illness is a nonprofit organization funded by donations from individuals and corporations, including one that specializes in food safety products and services, as well as the Produce Marketing Association and ConAgra foods.
Related
1 in 5 South Florida supermarkets failed inspections
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline, Public health, Public records
The South Florida Sun Sentinel reports that as the state has stepped up inspections of grocery outlets, officials have found legions of violations of rules designed to prevent the spread of food-borne illness. Reports of consumers actually contracting such illnesses from supermarket foods are rare, and the overall number of violators is fairly small. Additionally, reporters found that small markets are more likely to offend than larger chains.
There’s a bit of a backstory about this article, as Bob Norman of Broward New Times reports. The original reporter was laid off in May, before the project was finished and published.
[Mc Nelly] Torres, an Investigative Reporters & Editors board member, had developed a database, tagged along with inspectors, and written most of the piece. She says she asked her editor, Cyndi Metzger, about it and was assured that the story would be published under her name. The day after she was laid off, she went back to the office to do some touching up on the project.
When the project was published on Sunday, it carried no byline. Torres is acknowledged with several reporters in the tagline at the end of the story. Torres, who says she is disappointed but wants to move on, sent an e-mail to several editors and, according to Norman, has not received a response.
KQED takes stock of food safety measures
California public radio station KQED explored food inspection and safety at all levels of the process, from producer to consumer, in a package rich with audio and multimedia.
Specific topics addressed in the package include:
- Federal plans to reform the food safety system
- The safety of leafy greens, and the impact of possible federal regulations upon that sector of the agriculture industry
- A snapshot of the work of a health inspector in the California Bay Area
- A primer on consumer health safety and a separate segment addressing the rarely discussed dangers of growing your own food
- Food-safety issues related to both recreational and commercial fishing
AHCJ resources
Tip Sheets
- Lifting the shroud: Using multiple-cause-of-death data
- Melamine: A primer on the contamination of food
Article
Food safety initiatives will be subject of online chat
The Obama administration has created a deputy food commissioner position to coordinate safety in the case of an outbreak of salmonella and is creating a better system to track and identify the origins of foodborne illnesses.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will discuss the initiatives in a live online chat today (July 7) at 2:15 p.m. ET. To participate, visit http://apps.facebook.com/whitehouselive/.
A press release sas that “Sebelius and Vilsack will discuss the continuing work of the Food Safety Working Group - a recently established partnership between HHS and the Department of Agriculture tasked with upgrading food safety laws, fostering coordination throughout government, and ensuring the safety of America’s food supply.”
Tip sheets
Lifting the shroud: Using multiple-cause-of-death data
Melamine: A primer on the contamination of food
AHCJ article
Fatal Food: A study of illness outbreaks
Recent news
Loophole allows E. coli-tainted meat to be sold
Meat, dairy products transported in unsafe temperatures, overlooked by inspectors
Airlines delay testing of onboard water
Salmonella outbreak: A selection of recent stories
N.Y. school districts not meeting federal guidelines on cafeteria inspections
Private companies, not the FDA, increasingly perform food safety inspections
Web sites
Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy
Outbreak Alert! Database
Toxicologists: Media gets chemical risks wrong
Filed under: Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Writing for STATS, a research organization affiliated with George Mason University, Robert Lichter reports on a study of “how experts view the risks of common chemicals” that says “the media are overstating risk,” according to toxicologists.
Based on the survey responses of about 1,000 industry and academic toxicologists, the study was conducted by STATS, The Center for Health and Risk Communication at George Mason University, and the Society of Toxicology.
According to the survey, toxicologists say the news media overstates risk. Among the media, TV networks get the worst rap, the print media does slightly better and public broadcasting is seen as doing the best “with ‘only’ two out of three toxicologists describing PBS and NPR as overstating chemical risk.”
Also among the survey’s findings:
- Toxicologists “tend to downplay the dangers to human health” from chemicals and only a minority of them find cosmetics (one in four) or food additives (one in three) to be particularly risky. The majority saw more risk in pesticides and endocrine disruptors.
- Almost all say the amount of a toxin matters more than its mere presence, and deny that organic/natural products are inherently safer.
- Most agree that the regulatory system’s doing a good job, but that the media and regulators aren’t doing enough to accurately communicate with the public on these issues.
- In a sidebar titled “The Internet - a sober corrective to unruly journalists?” Trevor Butterworth reveals that toxicologists viewed WebMD and Wikipedia as far more accurate than mainstream media like The New York Times.
Obama announces FDA officials, food safety plan
In his weekly address, President Barack Obama announced new FDA leadership and a new Food Safety Working Group in which the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture work to organize food safety efforts across all levels of government.
There are certain things only a government can do. And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and don’t cause us harm. That is the mission of our Food and Drug Administration and it is a mission shared by our Department of Agriculture, and a variety of other agencies and offices at just about every level of government.
The President called food-borne illness a “hazard to public health” and “unacceptable” and said new FDA officials would work with other agencies to prevent and contain outbreaks as part of the Food Safety Working Group.
This Working Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them. And I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible.
New FDA Commissioner: Dr. Margaret Hamburg
Experience: Nuclear Threat Initiative’s founding Vice President for the Biological Program; Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Commissioner of Health for the City of New York; Assistant Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
New Principal Deputy Commissioner: Dr. Joshua Sharfstein
Experience: Baltimore Commissioner of Health; member of the Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine.
At the end of the address, President Obama also announced several specific policy changes.
As part of our commitment to public health, our Agriculture Department is closing a loophole in the system to ensure that diseased cows don’t find their way into the food supply. And we are also strengthening our food safety system and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar investment, a portion of which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors, helping ensure that the FDA has the staff and support they need to protect the food we eat.
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Health Journalism 2010, AHCJ's annual conference, features a world-class program with story ideas, sources, stronger reporting skills, chances to meet newsmakers and network with other journalists.
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
- Shortened Lives: How location, lifestyle affect health
- Covering a complex story for the long haul
- Aging in the 21st Century: Presentations and tip sheets
- AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site
