Changes in the nation's food processing methods, emerging strains of bacteria and advances in food testing justify an overhaul of America's food safety system. It's clear from incidents of food poisoning deaths and illnesses recently that the nation needs better methods of safety checks, as recommended by two research organizations.
The two non-governmental groups, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, describe the current food inspection system as a morass of dozens of laws being carried out by at least a dozen federal agencies that are overseen by 28 different congressional committees. The country's method of meat inspection now is to have government employees look at every carcass bound for the nation's food supply. Lacking are the new, sophisticated tests designed to detect microbial or chemical contamination. Impurities in meat and other foodstuffs contribute to the deaths of as many as 9,000 mostly young, old or weak Americans each year, according to some estimates.
The disorganized system makes it easier for dangerous foodstuffs to slip detection. So it make sense to streamline the number of agencies responsible for inspections and to vest in a single administrator the power to plan and enforce food safety efforts. The report, requested by Congress, cut through decades of fog to say simply that safety programs should focus where the risk of bacterial contamination is greatest.
Cutting through bureaucratic layers that have built up over decades to revamp the food safety system would be a difficult and radical move. President Clinton's executive order setting up machinery to coordinate the system goes in the right direction, but the machine is too weak because it has no regulatory power. Revamping is justified -- with the goal of lowering the financial and physical costs of food-induced sickness.
Comments on this posting?
Click here to post a public comment on the Trash Talk Bulletin Board.
Click here to send a private comment to the Junkman.
Copyright © 1998 Steven J. Milloy. All rights reserved on original material. Material copyrighted by others is used either with permission or under a claim of "fair use." Site developed and hosted by WestLake Solutions, Inc.
Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of Steven J. Milloy.