Unexpected Consequences
precautions. Industry-friendly regulations put the onus on consumers
to mop up risks while companies reap the profits.
Industry-friendly regulations also apply to FDA. The food indus-
try overwhelmingly pushed for passage of the Food Safety Mod-
ernization Act, which gave the agency more responsibility to make sure
that preventative practices were working. The new mandates, however,
required additional funding and staffing. When little was provided,
the food industry went silent. Adding responsibilities only exacerbated
chronic funding and staffing shortages.
Meanwhile, the mandates have not gone away. In the agency’s
own words: “Hundreds of thousands of growers and processors world-
wide are producing food for the US market... and making millions of
decisions every day that affect food safety.” Imports arrive from some
two hundred different countries, mostly less economically advanced
countries. Around 0 percent are processed food products. Only about
percent of imported food is examined, which can range from a closer
inspection of the manifest to a quick visual check of the product to dis-
patching samples for laboratory analysis.
More recently, the agency’s inability to execute effective food recalls
has come under harsh criticism from the Office of the Inspector Gen-
eral. Sampling thirty recalls from , cases over thirty-two months
revealed systemic deficiencies in evaluating health hazards, carrying out
audits, ensuring compliance where recalls were initiated, tracking, and
maintaining accurate recall data.
FDA’s challenge is to prove that the 20 FSMA law isn’t compro-
mising public health. So far, they can’t. My experience with scientists
and regulators is that they take their responsibilities seriously. But when
working in a fragmented system that is dogged by funding and staffing
limits even while being handed more mandates, they resort to practic-
ing triage.
Outbreaks serious enough to show up on the national public radar
receive high priority. Resources are found and investigations follow. But
overreliance on back-end responses presumes that foodborne risks are
accidental and transitory, akin to being in the wrong place at the wrong
time. In reality, other outbreaks are also occurring—we just don’t know
about them.