Yes, more inspectors are needed, not in Iraq but right here in the
good ole U.S.A. Not to search for nuclear, chemical, and biological
weapons but to search for those who contaminate America's food supply.
When in June E. coli bacteria in ConAgra's hamburgers sickened 47 persons
and killed one, the company voluntarily recalled 354,200 pounds of the
meat, but following a Federal investigation of the outbreak, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) demanded the recall of 19 million pounds.
In early October, listeria-tainted meat of the Wamper brand of Pilgrim's
Pride, America's second-largest poultry company, made 50 persons in
eight states ill and killed 10. This forced Pilgrim's Pride to recall
27 million pounds of ready-to-eat chicken and turkey products, the largest
food recall in U.S. history. A month later, when the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) found listeria bacteria in the J. L. Foods
plant in Camden, New Jersey, the company voluntarily recalled 200,000
pounds of the meat.
In 1998, a listeriosis outbreak in meat produced by the Sara Lee company
had sickened 100 and killed 21. The Center for Science in the Public
Interest estimates that annually food poisoning makes 76 million Americans
sick and causes 5,000 deaths. Yet, the Bush administration is still
not effectively enforcing the requirement for food-processing plants
to test meats systematically for listeria.
When 400 people got infected with Salmonella from eggs sold by the Rosedale
Egg Company, USDA stopped the sale of all eggs from the infected hens.
Thereupon Rosedale sued the Department for the $10,000 it claimed to
have lost because it could not sell the infected eggs. Incredibly, instead
of throwing the case out, the U.S. Court of Claims ruled in favor of
Rosedale.
Congress recently passed the Meat and Poultry Pathogen Reduction and
Enforcement Act that would allow USDA to shut down ground beef producers
failing to observe the science-based standards for the prevention of
food poisoning. The measure is popularly known as Kevin's Law, in honor
of two-year old Kevin Kowalcyk who died in agony after eating food contaminated
with E. coli. Americans eat millions of tons of vegetables, fruits,
and fish from abroad that have not been tested for bacteria and toxins
before reaching the consumers.
The dangers could be immeasurably worse if terrorists intentionally
contaminated imported or even homegrown foods. Fortunately, that risk
was recently addressed with the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism
Act of 2002. Regrettably, however, the number of inspectors to enforce
the law for the Food and Drug Administration has yet to be increased
to meet the needs.
Another source of contamination in our food supply is the overuse of
antibiotics in farm animals. Increasingly, Salmonella has been found
to be resistant to fluoroquinolones, the major antibiotic treatment
of infections caused by the bacterium. The FDA's Center for Veterinary
Medicine proposed to withdraw approval of the latest fluoroquinolone
drug in poultry. The New York Times reported that several major producers
of chicken products, among them Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms, decreased
the application of human antibiotics for their chickens. Food chains,
such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, and Hardee's say they no
longer make their chicken dishes from animals treated with fluoroquinolones.
While the illnesses caused by microbes and toxins in meat, fish, vegetables
and fruit catch most of the consumers' attention, there are other dangers
that remain little noticed and even less controlled. Take acrylamide,
for example, the chemical found in French fries and potato chips widely
suspected of causing cancer, nerve damage, and infertility. The FDA
recently launched a study to find out if and how it might be possible
to reduce or eliminate acrylamide in French fries and potato chips.
Fighting for healthful foods is homeland defense. The FDA and the USDA
need many more researchers to find the dangers and inspectors to enforce
the laws. America has plenty of money to that job, if only Congress
and the President cut back a few of the billions of taxpayer dollars
they waste in the Middle East.