Sludge Watch ==> Food Safety - Two stories about leafy greens and regulations

[Maureen Reilly]

Powell musings
13.feb.07
Fresh Talk
Tom Karst
http://freshtalk.blogspot.com/2007/02/powell-musings.html

I checked in with Doug Powell, KSU food safety professor, again today as I 
was tidying up his Q and A for The Packer. I asked him if he had seen the 
leafy greens draft GAP document and what he thought about it.
"I think there is a lot of hand waving," he said. What does that mean?, I 
inquired.
"People are going around acting like these are mysterious acts of God and 
I'm not sure that's the case."
While "rampaging pigs" and irrigation water have been given attention, 
Powell said soil amendments haven't been talked about much. "I"d be curious 
to see what they are adding to the soil," he said.
He said an upcoming FDA report on what specific farms the suspected tainted 
produce came from and what the farming practices were on those farms may be 
helpful.
"I hope (the FDA) identifies specific farms and farm practices," he said. 
Until that is done, a lot of the work may lack vital information.

.....

Feds' Alphabet Soup Hinders Food Safety
Some Experts Say The Government Isn't Doing Enough To Assure Safety Of The 
Food Supply



Quote

"It's outrageous so many people are poisoned by food."

Lisa Brott, E. coli victim


(CBS) After eating tainted spinach last September, Lisa Brott — a dedicated 
fitness buff at age 50 — found herself hemorrhaging blood, CBS News 
correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports.

"I was very critical for several days, I was in the ICU," Brott says. She 
was suffering from kidney failure. Brott was in the hospital 13 days with 
her organs shutting down.

"E. coli is a very aggressive, dangerous bacteria," Brott says.

After E. coli in produce caused two huge outbreaks last fall, you might 
think the federal agency in charge of E. coli would have a prevention plan 
by now. You'd be wrong — and here's why.

"There's no one in charge in the federal food safety system," says Mike 
Taylor, a former USDA and FDA food safety official.

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CBS News Poll On Food Safety
Food Safety Resources

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Taylor says the nation's food safety system is broken — a hodgepodge where 
the USDA inspects meat, but the FDA inspects milk. The USDA regulates 
chickens, but when a chicken lays an egg, that's the FDA. The EPA regulates 
pesticides in food, the CDC and National Marine Fisheries are involved. All 
told, 12 federal agencies have a role in food safety.

Worse, Taylor says most food safety money — 80 percent — goes to the USDA, 
which visually inspects meat in slaughterhouses, while millions of Americans 
actually get sick from the invisible germs in produce.

"The basic allocation has nothing to do with who's getting sick, and it's 
out of proportion to where the actual risks in the food supply," Taylor 
says.

During the past 10 years, Congress has been warned again and again that the 
food safety system is an organizational mess that does not fully protect 
consumers. But the spinach outbreak has led to new calls for reform. One 
idea: Create a single food agency to finally put someone in charge.

Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, says he thinks 
a single food agency would have traced the last outbreak more quickly. He 
says under one agency, money could be focused on disease prevention.

"When you consider 75 million Americans with food-borne illnesses each year, 
I do believe a better, more modern, streamlined agency would reduce those 
numbers. And it means that more people would survive," says Durbin, who on 
Wednesday will introduce a bill to bring all food safety under a single 
agency.

Brott calls it unacceptable that Congress has tolerated so many sick 
Americans.

"It's outrageous so many people are poisoned by food," Brott says. "A lot 
more has to be done, whatever it takes, to protect people's health."

One casualty of last fall's outbreak was consumer confidence in fresh food. 
Too many Americans like Brott ate their greens — and paid for it with a trip 
to the hospital.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/13/eveningnews/main2471371.shtml

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