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FDA Food Protection Plan Doesn't Satisfy DeLauro

By Pritzker | Ruohonen

The U.S. congresswoman who chairs the House Agriculture-FDA Appropriations Subcommittee remains convinced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should be stripped of its food safety responsibility.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who also sits on the influential House Appropriations and Budget Committee, repeated her criticism of the FDA this week, just days after the agency said it was making progress under the Food Protection Plan it launched in 2007 to improve its effectiveness.

U.S. Food Law Report said this week that the FDA's progress report contained a list of some impressive achievements -- including the creation of foreign field offices and pushing ahead with irradiation for leafy greens to kill potentially deadly pathogens. But the newsletter also said the FDA still has a long way to go in showing progress in the area of responding to outbreaks of foodborne illness.

DeLauro, who was quoted in U.S. Food Law Report, said real progress in food safety hinges on allowing the FDA to focus on medical product safety. The FDA's food safety responsibilities should be shifted to a separate agency under the Department of Health and Human Services, she said.

"While the FDA will contend that they are making progress on food safety, it is progress based on an outdated system and an outdated regulatory structure,'' DeLauro said. "The long-term viability of these so-called reforms remains in doubt given that food safety will constantly be compteing for attention and resources with medical product safety under the FDA."

Full post as published by Food Poisoning Law Blog on December 05, 2008 (boomark / email).