The FDA is Out of Ideas: Needs Your Help to Keep Produce Safe

Do you wash your store-bought, pre-washed salad mix? Do you have a reverse osmosis filter on your home drinking water? Are you still buying packaged ground beef from your local supermarket, despite the numerous warnings? Do you care if there may be trace amounts of BPA in your canned soup? If you have anything to say about any of the above issues, or the myriad of health hazards and food safety issues that have plagued the national food system for the past few years, than the fine folks at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) want to hear from you.

The United States, which once boasted one of the most meticulous and arguably the safest food systems in the world, now has to face up to the fact that presently 70 million Americans are sickened, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die from food-borne illness annually. This is not due to any significant change in the American diet; we still eat the same hamburgers, spinach, peanuts, and sausage that we have always been eating, only now (due in part to shoddy oversight and a general systemic failure) we are host to all sorts of recalls, outbreaks, and a national stomach ache that shows no mercy (remember the E. coli outbreak concerning numerous packages of organic spinach?). Due to recent cuts in funding and staff, according to Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director of the Center of Food Safety, the FDA currently inspects less than 25 percent of all food facilities in the U.S. More than 50 percent of all American food facilities have gone uninspected for five years or more. You could guess the results of such systemic negligence…processing facilities are not being monitored and food borne illnesses are consequently way up.

So now the beleaguered FDA is reaching out to those of you concerned enough to sound off. In what seems like a last ditch effort at relevance, or possibly a cynical PR move to squelch the sort of food uprising that this country needs, or maybe they are truly just trying to help, the FDA is showing a new spirit of commitment to doing the job right. They have opened a public docket (glorified chat room or cyber suggestion box – see comments here) to accept comments and suggestions from anxious consumers. ” This is your chance to let FDA know how best practices are being applied successfully…or point out areas where some practices just don’t work,” says Michael Taylor, advisor to the Commissioner of the FDA.

So what do you think? Is this an indication that change is afoot and that the FDA is as horrified as we are that our food system has fallen so far from grace? Can consensus, in this manner and forum, really change a broken food system and provide the much needed protection and security we crave? Is it worth even commenting?

If you are so inclined, feel free to make your opinion known to the FDA by following the directions below:

You can submit comments electronically via www.regulations.gov (put docket number FDA-2010-N-0085 in the “keyword” field) or by mail to Division of Dockets Management, HFA-305, FDA, 5630 Fishers Lane, Room 1061, Rockville, MD, 20852.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

KS G.

4:26AM PST on Feb 25, 2011

Thanks for the article.

send a green star

Heather B.

11:34PM PDT on May 2, 2010

Thank you, Eric.

Glenn A.

1:43PM PDT on Apr 25, 2010

Funny how so many other safe food strings here bitch about the FDA, yet this post comes up, and very few have anything to say...but I digress..for those who still use packaged foods..Like the Old El paso or others...when reading the ingredients...the very last item on the list is always "SPICES"..that is all it says...wanna have some REAL fun?..use the phone number on the package and ask them what exactly constitutes those "Spices"...All you will get is a bunch of UMMM..UHH..AHH.. and other stalling tactics..they will NOT tell you what these are. Go ahead..try it..have a good laugh.

Charmaine C.

8:58AM PDT on Apr 24, 2010

Very useful article. If you use Betty Crocker and Old El Passo foods, I urge you to take a look at the ingredients lists. Large corporations don't give a hoot for the health of the people they flog their products too. Money drowns out every other voice except for it's own strident demands!

ERica E.

3:38PM PDT on Apr 21, 2010

Grocery stores can continue to be given attractive and informative signs on how to wash produce.

Eugene A.

1:29PM PDT on Apr 21, 2010

I learned a trick while living in China: put all fruit or produce in a large bowl of water and ozone it. You can buy a small ozone generator online that will zap it for a few minutes with ozone, which destroys bacteria and even pesticides.

Tammy S.

5:19PM PDT on Apr 19, 2010

thanks for posting

4:11PM PDT on Apr 19, 2010

A few years ago, our Lotto 6/49 jackpot of 16 million was won by a farmer in Saskachewan, and when the lotto corp/news media asked him what he planned to do with his winnings, he answered,,"Oh, i guess I'll keep on farming till it runs out"...a fine example of exactly how much it actually costs now to raise food.

Lindsey B.

2:11PM PDT on Apr 19, 2010

Factory Farming.
It has to stop.
After the family farmer was removed from their land because of the inability to make a living growing food, agribusiness took over.
That is called pillage.

Mervi R.

1:51PM PDT on Apr 19, 2010

Interesting, thanks!