Government
FDA Crisis
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration former chief counsel, Peter Barton Hutt, told a Congressional panel that the F.D.A. was “barely hanging on by its fingertips. Several authoritative reports and other experts supported Hutt. A high turnover rate of scientists, a decrepit information technology system, a weak organizational structure, and a shrinking inspection force further the problems. The Government Accountability Office reports the agency does not have enough staff or adequate computer systems to conduct timely inspections. The agency would take 1,900 years to inspect every foreign food plant. The reason for the agency’s woes is simple. More than 100 statutes have added new responsibilities over the past 20 years — without providing enough money and personnel to carry out the tasks. To make things worse, the flood of food and drug ingredients from abroad have overwhelmed the agency’s ability to keep up.
Florida Worst in Outbreaks
Healthinspections.com found 77 outbreaks in Florida last year, the most of any state. Bill Veach, the director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants said Florida has so many cases of food poisoning because we have so many restaurants. Roy Costa, a former state health inspector claimed Florida has a higher number of food borne illnesses because of how our restaurants are inspected, stating, "The inspection system we have in Florida is broken. It's severely broken. It's not just ’needs tweaking’, it needs real fixing." Costa says every restaurant should have a written food safety plan, and that, "Restaurants need to be held responsible for sanitation 24-7, not just when the inspector walks in the door! When consumers go to a restaurant, they're really rolling the dice!” Not so, says Mr. Veach.
Article by Roy E. Costa, R.S, M.S., President of Environ Health Associates