Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The National Academies of Sciences Institute of Medicine, the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have joined together to urge the incoming Obama administration to address food safety issues that have plagued the FDA in the past few years. However, the Institute of Medicine and the consumer groups disagree on the legalities, according to Flesh and Stone.

According to the report, the Institute of Medicine issued a statement recommending the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and the food safety activities of the FDA within HHS should be unified. The consumer groups argue that combining the two agencies would cause the dysfunctional FDA program to undermine the good work of the USDA. Thus, the groups are recommending reforming the food inspection process.

The FDA is a hot topic for the Obama administration. The agency has come under fire in recent months for its handling of contaminated foods and tainted imports. Last spring, the agency incorrectly identified the source of a salmonella outbreak to tomatoes before concluding that jalapeno peppers from Mexico were the cause.

And, earlier this month, Rep. Joe Barton, a ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned the FDA’s handling of the contaminated heparin scandal that caused more than 80 Americans to die and hundreds more to fall ill. The heparin was found to have been contaminated at a China manufacturing plant. After issuing a recall on the tainted heparin, the FDA admitted it did not have the staff to fully inspect all foreign food and drug manufacturing plants to ensure quality and safety of drugs imported into the United States.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 2nd, 2009 at 8:00 am and is filed under Heparin recall, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.