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Consumer Group Presses Feds to Fix Food System

Thousands die yearly from contaminated food

July 3, 2008

Food Safety • Two Companies Pull Meat, Poultry Products Over Health Concerns • Food Safety Group Presses Senate For Action • New Report Recommends Enhanced Food Tracing Guidelines • FDA Issues New Code For Regulating Food Industry • At Least 2 Deaths Reported in Massive E.Coli Ground Beef Recall • Food Toxin Linked To Liver Cancer • Senate Urged To Pass Food Safety Modernization Act • Consumers Have Little Trust That Food They Buy is Safe and Healthy • Consumers Union Opposes USDA Proposal On Salad Safety • New Food Registry Enables Quick Reporting of Dangerous Products • Nothing Simple about Food Dating, Expiration Dates or 'Use-By' Dates • Feds Announce New Food Safety Strategies • House Passes Food Safety Bill --- • More ...

The search for the cause of the salmonella-tomato outbreak has led investigators to expand their probe to other salad ingredients. Meanwhile, a recall of ground beef suspected of E. coli contamination, that began in Ohio and Michigan, has been expanded to other states.

Richard Hamburg, Director of Government Relations for Trust for America's Health, says enough is enough.

"The beef recall and the new questions about the salmonella outbreak are sure signs that the food safety system in America is broken," he said. American families should be able to put food on their tables that does not make them sick, and when contaminated food does hit the market shelves, the government should be able to tell where it came from."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week it is broadening its investigation into the recent salmonella outbreak to other foods, because they are no longer sure that tomatoes were ever the source. At last count more than 800 people have been reportedly stricken and 107 had to be hospitalized.

Hamburg said his group is concerned that federal agencies are not getting a handle on the situation, despite a number of highly publicized foodborne illness outbreaks in the last two years.

"While the amount of food that needs inspection continues to grow, funding for oversight and investigation fails to keep up," Hamburg said. "The investigators that are on the job are using methods and technology that are a century old. It doesn't add up, and the risks to the American people keep reappearing like clockwork."

Hamburg said approximately 76 million Americans -- one in four -- are sickened by foodborne disease each year. Of these, an estimated 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die, costing the U.S. $44 billion annually.

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