Food Safety
What’s New?
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 Sewage sludge and recycled wastewater leach chemicals and pathogens into soils used to grow food crops. Learn more. |
Fungicide in Orange Juice
The FDA recently sent a letter to the juice industry about the fact that the fungicide carbendazim was found in several samples of orange juice concentrate coming from Brazil. Read more.
Arsenic in Apple Juice
On Nov. 22, four months after calling on the FDA to take long overdue action on the contamination of apple juice, we received a response from the agency. 
The letter explains that the FDA is currently analyzing data and working towards setting guidance on levels of heavy metals such as arsenic in juice. We are encouraged that the FDA is taking steps in the right directlion, but much more needs to be done to protect consumers.
Read our letter to the FDA that contains new data that reveals levels of arsenic contamination in one juice sample that was more than five times higher than what the EPA would allow in drinking water. See the lab report outlining the heavy metals tested for in several brands of apple juice.
Read more in our press release.
Listeria in Cantaloupe
Contaminated foods — the list includes cantaloupe, ground turkey, spinach, peppers, peanut butter and eggs — have killed and sickened too many Americans. Now, Congress wants to cut the budgets of the agencies that oversee our food and water protections even further.
Why Is Our Food’s Safety at Greater Risk Now Than Ever Before?
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 Why are food imports from China overwhelming U.S. food safety inspectors? Find out: A Decade of Dangerous Food Imports from China.
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It’s complicated.
One of the reasons is that as small farms have given way to factory farms, corporate operations grow bigger and our food is in greater jeopardy from the longer more complicated supply chains. The trends towards factory farming increase production and profits for the industry AND increase the likelihood of food contamination problems. Although the government provides inspectors to protect consumers, their authority is waning as the government has handed over much of the responsibility to the industry to self-regulate.
Another reason our food is at greater risk is inadequate funding in the federal budget. The key agencies tasked with overseeing and protecting our food and its safety have had their budgets come under attack by Republican legislators seeking to reduce the federal budget deficit. And President Obama’s budget is not much better. Get the facts.
We have an important opportunity to improve our food system and ensure safer food. The Farm Bill controls how food reaches all of our plates: how it’s grown, processed and distributed, and who has access to healthy food. The Farm Bill is up for re-authorization in 2012 and if we can implement certain changes, we can create a healthy food system for everyone. Learn more about the farm bill and our Fair Farm Bill campaign.
Opportunity for Action:
Right now, the House is debating the 2012 budget for the USDA and FDA. Both agencies have important jobs to do to protect consumers from unsafe food, and both are being underfunded in the version of the bill that the House is considering. But there is one amendment to the budget being proposed that would make matters worse – it would take money from USDA to try to fund FDA. Act now.
Federal Budget
Tainted spinach, peppers, peanut butter and eggs have killed 14 Americans and sickened thousands more over the past five years.
Now, Congress wants to cut the budgets of the agencies that oversee our food and water protections even further.
The original Republican proposal (House Resolution 1, or H.R. 1) for cutting the current FY 2011 federal budget would cut the budget for U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat inspections by $88 million, and would return funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to less than last year’s levels—putting them even further behind in meeting requirements of the new food safety law passed late last year. President Obama’s proposed 2012 budget would cut the USDA’s meat inspection budget by $9 million and increase the FDA’s budget—but not enough to implement the new Food Safety Modernization Act.
Radiation Impacts
American consumers could be at risk through consumption of food products from other countries that experience radioactive fallout from the nuclear accident in Japan as well.
Legislation Update
The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
On January 4, 2011, President Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act into law. This legislation is the first major overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety responsibilities since 1938 and is a first step towards modernizing FDA’s food safety program. It will take several years to put the law into effect and Congress will have to appropriate an additional $1.4 billion over the next five years to give the FDA the resources it needs to implement and enforce the law.
The law only covers foods under the FDA’s jurisdiction (including produce and processed foods.) It does not cover meat, poultry, or certain egg products that are regulated by the USDA.
Two provisions of the new law take effect immediately:
- The law gives the FDA mandatory recall authority when a food manufacturer refuses to initiate a product recall voluntarily.
- The law gives FDA inspectors enhanced authority to review a company’s food safety records if they suspect that the firm is putting adulterated product into commerce. (This is still not as much authority as USDA inspectors, who can review a meat or poultry company’s records at any time.)
Other major provisions of the new law need to be implemented and funded before they go into effect. The FDA will develop many of these pieces through a rulemaking process that includes public comment, and Congress must give the FDA resources to develop these programs and enforce them.
More important points about the legislation:
- The law establishes a schedule for FDA inspection of food processing facilities – after several years, the agency will inspect once every three years for “high-risk” food facilities and once every five years for “low-risk” facilities. The FDA has to determine how the risk categories are defined. (For comparison, USDA-regulated meat and poultry facilities are inspected daily.)
- The law requires food processors to develop food safety plans that reduce the possibility of putting adulterated food into commerce.
- The law directs the FDA to develop produce safety standards. Several provisions of the law direct the agency to consider organic standards, wildlife protection and conservation measures as they develop these standards.
- The law creates a grant program for training small processors and farmers to assist them as they come into compliance with the produce safety or food safety plan requirements.
- The law directs the FDA to create pilot projects for creating traceability programs for food.
- The law requires that food importers certify that the safety of the food they are bringing into the country meets U.S. standards.
- The law directs the FDA to double its inspection of foreign food facilities that export products to the U.S. every year, for five years. The FDA is scheduled to visit 600 foreign facilities in fiscal year 2011. The schedule outlined in the law would bring the total of foreign inspections to over 19,000 in fiscal year 2016.
- The law sets a target of 5000 food safety employees at the FDA by fiscal year 2014. To meet this target, it will need to hire about 2000 more food safety employees than the agency currently has.
- The law establishes whistleblower protections for the FDA and company employees who report violations of the law or other food safety regulations.
Protecting Food Safety and Small Farmers
There was a lot of controversy and discussion about the impact this law will have on small farms and small food processors. Food & Water Watch and many other groups advocated for a provision in the bill that exempts certain small processors and farmers from the food safety plan and produce safety requirements. To be eligible for this exemption, farms or businesses must gross less than $500,000 per year and sell a majority of their food products directly to consumers, restaurants and grocery stores within a 275-mile radius from their place of business (or the same state.) They must demonstrate that they are in compliance with state and local food safety laws. The exemption is removed if their products are implicated in a foodborne illness outbreak.