What Food Safety Experts Say
"Important steps must be taken to better protect the nation's food supply - from farm-to-fork - to strengthen our food safety system so we prevent outbreaks from happening in the first place[i]."
Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg
Confirmation Hearing of Commissioner-Designate of the Food and Drug Administration
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
May 7, 2009
"...it is simply unacceptable for Americans to fear consuming fresh fruits and vegetables that are essential to their good health[ii]."
Thomas E. Stenzel
President and CEO, United Fresh Produce Association
Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Health
June 3, 2009
"It is the government's job, on the other hand, to set standards for food safety and hold the food industry accountable for meeting those standards through regulatory and enforcement authorities."[iii]
Representative Frank Pallone
Statement to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Health
March 11, 2009
"Fresh produce."[iv]
Dr. David Acheson, Associate Commissioner for Foods, U.S. Food and Drug Administration in responding to question of "biggest risk we have in food right now?"
Hearing of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
June 12, 2008
"P(roduce) M(arketing) A(ssociation)supports federally mandated, risk-based, commodity-specific regulation of fresh produce. . . PMA believes that federal oversight by the Food and Drug Administration should be the final goal . . . (and) that FDA must be provided with the proper funding to conduct this critical mandate and urges Congress to make this a top priority."[v]
Produce Marketing Association
Issues: Food Safety
Accessed June 17, 2008
"Fresh fruits and vegetables are at the center of a healthy diet, so it is critical that immediate steps are taken to improve their safety. CSPI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) has petitioned the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to take action to require that all fruit and vegetable processors develop written plans to identify where contamination is likely to occur and how to address it." [vi]
Caroline Smith DeWaal
Director of Food Safety
Center for Science in the Public Interest
March 12, 2007
"Until the government comes in and says we're going to have a law here...I don't think we're going to make any monumental change in improving the safety of bagged salads in general."[vii]
Michael Doyle
Director of the University of Georgia's Center for Food Safety.
The Washington Post
September 22, 2006
"Our focus today needs to be on prevention, not just reaction, if we are to have any hope of averting a future failure in the food safety system. FDA must have the scientific capability to do the research to develop the right processes and controls, producers and suppliers must be required to take steps to protect their link in the food chain, and the Agency must have the authority to hold producers and suppliers accountable for the failure to establish necessary protections."[viii]
Dr. David A. Kessler
Former Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
May 1, 2007
The nation's food supply is at risk. Crisis management in FDA's two food safety centers, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), has drawn attention and resources away from FDA's ability to develop the science base and infrastructure needed to efficiently support innovation in the food industry, provide effective routine surveillance, and conduct emergency outbreak investigation activities to protect the food supply. [ix]
Science Board to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
November 2007
[i] Margaret A. Hamburg, testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions111th Cong. 1st Sess May 7, 2009. http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_05_07_b/Hamburg.pdf
[ii] Thomas E. Stenzel, testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health, on the discussion draft of the "Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, 111th Cong. 1st Sess June 3, 2009. http://help.senate.gov/Hearings/2009_05_07_b/Hamburg.pdf
[iii] Representative Frank Pallone, Statement to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health " How Do We Fix Our Ailing Food Safety System?" 111th Cong. 1st Sess, March 11, 2009 http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_111/20090311/pallone_open.pdf
[iv] David Acheson, testifying before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, "American Lives Still at Risk: When Will FDA's Food Protection Plan Be Fully Funded and Implemented?" 110th Cong. 2nd sess., June 12 2008, http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-oi-hrg.061208.FDAFoodProtectionPlan.shtml.
[v] Produce Marketing Association, Issues: Food Safety, http://www.pma.com/issues/foodSafety.cfm.
[vi] Carolyn Smith DeWaal, testifying before the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Sub-Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, 110th Cong. 1st sess., March 12, 2007, p. 7 , http://www.cspinet.org/foodsafety/senatertestimonywisc.pdf.
[vii] Annys Shinn, At E. Coli Hunt's End, A Safety Standards Gap, The Washington Post, September 22, 2006.
[viii] David A. Kessler, testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Hearing of the Food and Drug Administration's Critical Mission and Challenges for the Future" 110th Cong. 1st sess., p. 36, http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070501193354.pdf.
[ix] HHS, FDA, Science Board to the FDA, Report of the Subcommittee on Science and Technology, FDA Science and Mission at Risk, (2007) http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/ac/07/briefing/2007-4329b_02_01_FDA%20Report%20on%20Science%20and%20Technology.pdf.
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