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FDA falls down on food safety

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published April 2, 2007

Even Americans who don't own pets should be very concerned about the dog and cat poisonings linked to popular pet food brands. As sad as the death is of a beloved pet, the next tragedy linked to tainted food could involve people. The problem is that the nation's food-safety bureaucracy isn't up to the job of protecting people or their animals.

The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to play a key role in overseeing the purity of both human and pet food. For the most part, however, the FDA is a "lookout agency." It waits until people (or pets) start getting sick then shouts, "Look out!"

That's too late for some victims (as with last year's spinach scare). Consider how long it took to issue a warning about the pet poisonings. On Feb. 20, Menu Foods (maker of all 95 brands in question) started getting reports of renal failure in pets that ate the Canadian company's food. It waited a week to begin test feedings on dogs and cats, during which several cats reportedly died. But it wasn't until March 16 that Menu Foods and the FDA issued their first recalls of the suspected products.

It's not certain how many pets are at risk from the tainted food, although Pet Connection reports the number dead so far at more than 2,400. While the FDA is responsible for the safety and labeling of pet food, it acknowledges it rarely inspects processing plants. "There are limited resources," said David Elder of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

The FDA doesn't do a very good job of inspecting human food processing plants, either. In fact, the pet food scare comes at a time the Bush administration is cutting back the FDA's food inspection program.

One reason food safety regulation is so ineffective is that the duties are scattered among more than a dozen agencies. A bill filed in Congress would put that responsibility under one independent administrator, but it has little chance of becoming law because of opposition from the powerful food industry. So an estimated 76-million Americans will be sickened, 325,000 will be hospitalized and 5,000 will die this year from food-borne illness.

Menu Foods still can't (or won't) say what caused the poisonings. New York inspectors found rat poison in some of the food, but FDA tests turned up melamine, a toxic substance found in some fertilizers and plastics. Imported wheat gluten could have been the source of the toxin.

Until the mystery is solved, consumers are left to fend for themselves. As usual.

[Last modified April 1, 2007, 21:15:39]