Senate to hold first hearing on peanut outbreak
"To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is giving it too much credit. It is a hit or miss gamble, and that is truly frightening," said Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, which was holding a hearing on the outbreak Thursday. "It's time to find the gaps in the system and remedy them."
Meanwhile, more peanut products are being added to a recall list that surpasses 1,000 items — from ice cream to crackers to granola bars. Independent experts say it appears to be a record number of products for a recall involving foods consumed by humans.
In Congress, lawmakers are dusting off legislation that went nowhere under the previous administration and hoping for better luck under President Barack Obama, who has criticized the Food and Drug Administration's handling of the outbreak.
But it remains unclear whether Congress can deliver major improvements in food safety this year, given the press of critical issues such as the shaky economy and a ballooning federal deficit.
The salmonella outbreak has sickened at least 550 people, eight of whom have died. A Blakely, Ga., peanut-processing plant that produces just 1 percent of U.S. peanut products is being blamed.
Authorities say Peanut Corp. of America shipped peanut butter, paste and other products that had tested positive for salmonella. The company retested, got a negative reading, and shipped the products. A criminal investigation is under way. The Lynchburg, Va.-based company denies any wrongdoing and said Wednesday that the Blakely plant received regular visits and inspections from state and federal authorities in 2008.
"Independent audit and food safety firms also conducted customary unannounced inspections of the Blakely facility in 2008. One gave the plant an overall 'superior' rating, and the other rated the plant as 'meet or exceeds audit expectations (acceptable-excellent)' ratings," the company said in a statement.
In the House, Reps. John Dingell, D-Mich., Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., are pursuing reform bills that have many similarities and some key differences.
In the Senate, Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin is preparing to reintroduce a bipartisan bill.
All the reform proposals would give the FDA authority to order recalls, which are now voluntary.
Reformers also agree that food processing plants should be required to have a safety plan and document their compliance. And there is widespread agreement that standards for imported foods must be upgraded.
There's also consensus that inspections should be carried out according to common requirements, but legislators differ on how frequently checks should be performed.
There's agreement on the need for standards for fresh produce, but there are differences over setting up a tracking system to find foods implicated in an outbreak.
DeLauro's bill calls for taking food safety away from the FDA, where it is sometimes seen as a bureaucratic stepchild, and setting up a new Food Safety Administration within the Health and Human Services Department.
William Hubbard, a former FDA associate commissioner, said no reforms can succeed without more money. He says Congress must double the FDA's food safety budget to about $1 billion a year.
But even with that, Hubbard warned, the agency would not be able to regularly inspect some 150,000 facilities that produce, ship and store foods. He says the answer is a food safety system in which the FDA sets rules that all players in the food industry must comply with and that states help to enforce.
"I think there is so much public anxiety about food safety that there is a good chance for action," Hubbard said.
But he quickly added a cautionary note: "Congress," he said, "is a slow-moving beast
