May 02, 2007
FDA: Open Wide At Your Peril
The latest food scare is no longer just affecting Fido and Snowball: millions of chickens that were given tainted feed were subsequently consumed by humans, the Food and Drug Administration says.
The Washington Post reported this morning that 2.5 million affected chickens were traced to one producer in Indiana, and "hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount of contaminated poultry in recent months." Last week, officials said more than 6,000 hogs were given the poisonous feed, which has killed 4,150 cats and dogs.
Yesterday, former FDA commissioners spoke before the House Oversight Committee to warn Americans to be afraid. Be very afraid.
"The reality is that there is currently no mandate, no leadership, no resources, nor scientific research base for prevention of food-safety problems," said David Kessler, who led the FDA from 1990 through 1997. (The committee's Web site has video of the hearing.) Earlier in the day, current commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach appointed David Acheson the FDA's first-ever food safety czar. Acheson, a former medical researcher, was already in charge of food safety at the FDA, but will now have broader powers to coordinate food safety and defense efforts throughout the agency.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that the FDA hatched a strategy to protect the food supply following 9/11, but that insufficient funding and foot-dragging had kept the plan in limbo.
Kessler testified that a lack of coordination and communication within FDA and between the FDA and USDA was responsible for the food supply's "broken" defense. In the latest scare, contaminated wheat gluten imported from China is being eyed as the culprit.
USDA in recent years has enacted stronger controls on the livestock industry because of the mad cow disease scare, which prompted key trade partners such as Japan to ban American beef. (The Japanese have since partially lifted the ban.) But the vast majority of livestock feed still contains ingredients no sane human would even want to look at.
According to a wire writeup in the Dallas Morning News, animals that are headed for your dinner plate may have munched on "additives like blood, manure and even unborn calf carcasses," which "are allowed under state or federal rules." Offal, including lungs, spleen and even brain, may also find its way into some feed.
The FDA emphasized that the trace amounts of contaminants in the human food supply weren't concentrated enough to harm humans. Lawmakers yesterday introduced legislation giving the FDA more authority to order recalls and fine derelict producers; Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., requested a $183 million increase in the agency's food safety budget.
In the meantime, organic and small-farms champions are probably having an I-told-you-so moment right about now. Grass-fed and "heirloom" breeds, which are fed additive- and animal-free diets, are popping up in restaurants all over Manhattan and, increasingly, in other East Coast metropoli. (The West Coast has been at this for much longer.)
(Photo credit: Sanja Gjenero)
