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Decline in food safety is difficult to swallow
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP May 08, 2007 05:42pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | Newspaper - Chicago Sun-Times |
| News Date | Tuesday, May 8, 2007 12:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The best the FDA could do following the revelation that thousands of cats and dogs likely were killed by commercial pet food containing poisoned wheat gluten and rice protein -- two Chinese companies had spiked the meals with melamine, an industrial chemical, to increase their profits -- was to create the underwhelming post of assistant commissioner for food protection.
A decade after Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin introduced the Safe Food Act, which would improve food inspection by consolidating competing health and food agencies and give the newly formed group the power to recall bad product -- food producers are still in control of their own fate in determining whether to recall food or issue warnings about it -- it still has not been acted on. Need Congress be reminded that the tainted food that killed so many pets also was fed to farm animals, which may or may not prove to be a threat to humans?
One can only hope Durbin's re-introduced measure will gain traction following a disturbing New York Times report about people, possibly in the thousands, dying from medications containing a toxic syrup -- a scheme that, again, has been traced to China, which has become a major exporter of food to the United States but is scrutinized by the FDA no more now than before. And Congress must not only take actions to ramp up and streamline inspections of incoming product, it must take steps to get the countries exporting these goods to conduct own inspections. |
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