President Barack Obama signalled his intention to improve US food safety on Saturday (14 March), with the formation of a Food Safety Working Group and two top appointments at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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The US food safety system has come under increasing fire; with highly publicised food safety scares prompting calls for reform.
Most recently, an ongoing salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter has sickened 683 people in 46 states. According to the latest figures from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the scare has been linked to nine deaths.
President Obama said the US food safety system was ineffective because too many federal and state agencies are responsible for food safety, making it difficult to share information.
The new Food Safety Working Group, to be chaired by the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture, will coordinate with other agencies and senior officials to advise the President on improving coordination between government departments and agencies, and examining, upgrading and enforcing food safety laws.
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By GlobalDataIn his weekly briefing, President Obama also announced two other food safety measures. The Department of Agriculture will close a loophole to prevent diseased cows from entering the food supply chain, while the government is also to increase “substantially” the number of FDA food inspectors and modernise food safety laboratories.
“The FDA has been underfunded and understaffed in recent years, leaving the agency with the resources to inspect just 7,000 of our 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses each year,” he warned.
President Obama also appointed Dr Margaret Hamburg as commissioner of the FDA and Dr Joshua Sharfstein as the principal deputy commissioner.
Dr Hamburg is an authority on public health systems, infectious disease, bioterrorism and emergency preparedness, having served as the Nuclear Threat Initiative’s founding vice president for the Biological Program. Before that, she was the assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She also served for six years as the commissioner of health for the City of New York.
Dr Sharfstein is currently commissioner of health for the City of Baltimore and also serves as chair of the board of four affiliated nonprofit agencies. He is also a member of the board on Population Health and Public Health Practice of the Institute of Medicine.
The US food industry has welcomed President Obama’s move to tighten safety controls and reform regulatory bodies. The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) said the appointments and the formation of the new working group signalled that the Obama administration has prioritised food safety issues.
“We applaud President Obama for his selection of Dr Margaret Hamburg as the next FDA commissioner,” said GMA president and CEO Pamela Bailey. “Dr Hamburg
is a dedicated public health professional who has the knowledge, expertise and experience to lead the agency at this critical time. Likewise, we are pleased with the President’s selection of Dr Joshua Sharfstein as FDA Principal Deputy.”
Bailey added that the appointment of two “prominent public health professionals” was a clear signal of the priority being placed on bolstering the FDA’s food safety role.
“In addition, we support the President’s creation of a White House Food Safety Working Group to facilitate better coordination among federal agencies as well as to review and improve the nation’s food safety laws,” Bailey said. “Our 21st century food supply is extremely complex, and it is time to reform, modernise and strengthen our food safety approach to keep pace with that complexity.”
