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Key Senator Blasts FDA Over Food Safety

FDA relies on states, companies to police themselves

February 6, 2009
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) has called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to submit records detailing how it works with various state governments to inspect food companies.

The request comes on the heels of the recall of peanuts and peanut products from the Peanut Corporation of America, which has been linked to a Salmonella outbreak that has killed eight and sickened 575, including three in Harkin's home state of Iowa.

"We know what happens when federal oversight is deregulated," said Harkin. "We saw the impact of deregulation on our financial sector and now we are seeing the impact of weak oversight on food safety inspections. To say that food safety in this country is a patchwork system is giving it too much credit. Food safety in America has too often become a hit-or-miss gamble, and that is truly frightening."

During testimony before the Committee, the FDA testified that the Peanut Corporation of America's own testing found 12 incidents of Salmonella at the plant since 2007.

• Complete List of Recalled Products --- • Texas Fines Peanut Plant $14.6 Million For Violations • Lawmakers Chastise Food Executives Over Salmonella Outbreak • Source of Salmonella Contamination in Peanut Butter May Be Found • More Pet Foods Added to Salmonella Recall • Peanut Recall Expanded To "All Ingredients" • Peanut Corporation of America Files for Bankruptcy • PCA Shuts Second Peanut Plant In Salmonella Scare • Peanut Butter Recall Claims Still More Products • Ice Cream, Cookies, Donuts Join the Massive Peanut Butter Recall List • Peanut Recall Expands as Feds Release Findings • Congresswoman Demands Peanut Probe • Feds: Peanut Corporation Knew of Salmonella Problem • Dozens More Peanut Butter Products Recalled • NutriSystem Joins Peanut Butter Recall • Peanut Butter Dog Treats Recalled Due to Salmonella • Peanut Butter Health Bars Recalled • Peanut Butter Recall List Grows • Peanut Butter Recall Spreads To More Products • Kellogg Puts Peanut Butter Crackers "On Hold" Due to Salmonella Concerns • Peanut Butter Recalled Due to Possible Salmonella Contamination • King Nut Issues Peanut Butter Recall • Consumer Complaints about Peanut Butter --- Earlier stories • Judge Nixes Peanut Butter Class Action • FDA Failed to Follow Up on 2004 Peanut Butter Contamination • Peter Pan Returning To Store Shelves • Consumers Still Getting Sick From Tainted Peanut Butter • Fourth Peanut Butter Death Reported • Peanut Butter Recall Extended to Products Made as Early as 2004 • Peanut Butter Scare Stirs Congress • Consumers Left Holding the Peanut Butter Jar • Earlier Peanut Butter Contamination Kept Quiet • Peanut Butter Developed as a Health Food • Third Death Blamed on Peanut Butter • Peanut Butter Recalls Spread to Ice Cream & Desserts • FDA Says Peanut Butter Salmonella Outbreak Is "Ongoing" • Salmonella Confirmed in Peanut Butter • Second Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • Death Linked To Tainted Peanut Butter • ConAgra Recalls Tainted Peanut Butter as Complaints Mount • FDA Widens Peanut Butter Warning • Reports of Peanut Butter-Borne Illness Increase • FDA Warns of Salmonella in Peanut Butter --- • Consumer Complaints about Peanut Butter --- • Salmonella: What It Is • More about Food Safety ...

Under law, the company does not have to report these findings to the FDA and despite these warnings, the last time federal inspectors were sent to the company was in 2001. Instead, the FDA relied on the company to remedy the problems.

Harkin said enough is enough.

"I am nothing short of outraged at the increasing number of outbreaks of food-borne illness in this country," Harkin said. Everything from spinach and lettuce to beef products and, now, peanut products has been implicated. Within the last year, we had the biggest recall ever under USDA jurisdiction. And just in the last month, with the recall of peanut products from the Peanut Corporation of America, we had one of the largest recalls ever under FDA jurisdiction."

This week various media reported a Texas company linked to Peanut Corporation, which had been contracted out to the Texas Department of Agriculture for inspection, had not been inspected by either federal or state officials for almost four years.

"FDA is increasingly relying on states to conduct food safety inspections and this system is not working. I urge the FDA to submit to Congress details of the contracts and inspection reports with individual states immediately as we work to close the gaping loopholes in our nation's food safety system," he said.

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