System for Protecting the Nation's Food Supply is Under Scrutiny
This summer's salmonella outbreak could go down as the national food supply's biggest unsolved mystery.
Instead of a smoking gun, the only clue is a single tainted jalapeño pepper with the rare strain of Salmonella Saintpaul found at a Texas produce distribution center.
The difficulty in finding answers to one of the nation's most complicated and longest-running food-borne-illness cases has turned a spotlight on the beleaguered Food and Drug Administration, as well as the system for protecting the U.S. food supply.
Tomatoes, the original suspect, have been released from questioning but not exonerated. Now federal inspectors have fingered jalapeño peppers from Mexico as a potential source of contamination. But the trail is getting cold, and it's getting hard to find enough evidence to isolate the source of an outbreak that has sickened 1,294 people since April.
Critics say it's evidence of a system that is broken and desperately in need of an overhaul.
''The bottom line is this is not working,'' said Carl Nielsen, a 28-year veteran of the FDA and former director of import inspections. ``There have to be radical changes.''
''This is not a matter of throwing a few more million dollars at the problem and a tomatogate wouldn't happen,'' said Nielsen, who now works as a consultant.
While this salmonella outbreak may be getting more public scrutiny than most, the issues aren't new. At the heart of the problem is a decentralized system for tracking food-borne illnesses that requires coordination of multiple agencies, including the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state health departments.
Add to that a multitude of challenges, such as lack of recall authority, funding shortfalls and not enough regulatory control over foreign agricultural practices. Together, they add up to a prescription for disaster.
''We need to move forward with much-needed modernization of our national food safety laws,'' said U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, a Central Florida Republican, who is co-sponsoring new food safety legislation. ``These laws haven't really changed since the Eisenhower administration.''
But in today's global economy, food is imported from all over the world and shipped cross-country, traveling thousands of miles from the farm to your table.
Industry experts and congressional leaders agree that there must be a uniform standard regarding consumer warnings.
Now, seven weeks after the FDA warned consumers to stop eating certain kinds of tomatoes, the investigation is focusing on jalapeño peppers grown in Mexico. It may have been salsa or a garnish that made consumers sick.
Read the full article here
Instead of a smoking gun, the only clue is a single tainted jalapeño pepper with the rare strain of Salmonella Saintpaul found at a Texas produce distribution center.
The difficulty in finding answers to one of the nation's most complicated and longest-running food-borne-illness cases has turned a spotlight on the beleaguered Food and Drug Administration, as well as the system for protecting the U.S. food supply.
Tomatoes, the original suspect, have been released from questioning but not exonerated. Now federal inspectors have fingered jalapeño peppers from Mexico as a potential source of contamination. But the trail is getting cold, and it's getting hard to find enough evidence to isolate the source of an outbreak that has sickened 1,294 people since April.
Critics say it's evidence of a system that is broken and desperately in need of an overhaul.
''The bottom line is this is not working,'' said Carl Nielsen, a 28-year veteran of the FDA and former director of import inspections. ``There have to be radical changes.''
''This is not a matter of throwing a few more million dollars at the problem and a tomatogate wouldn't happen,'' said Nielsen, who now works as a consultant.
While this salmonella outbreak may be getting more public scrutiny than most, the issues aren't new. At the heart of the problem is a decentralized system for tracking food-borne illnesses that requires coordination of multiple agencies, including the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and state health departments.
Add to that a multitude of challenges, such as lack of recall authority, funding shortfalls and not enough regulatory control over foreign agricultural practices. Together, they add up to a prescription for disaster.
''We need to move forward with much-needed modernization of our national food safety laws,'' said U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, a Central Florida Republican, who is co-sponsoring new food safety legislation. ``These laws haven't really changed since the Eisenhower administration.''
But in today's global economy, food is imported from all over the world and shipped cross-country, traveling thousands of miles from the farm to your table.
Industry experts and congressional leaders agree that there must be a uniform standard regarding consumer warnings.
Now, seven weeks after the FDA warned consumers to stop eating certain kinds of tomatoes, the investigation is focusing on jalapeño peppers grown in Mexico. It may have been salsa or a garnish that made consumers sick.
Read the full article here
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