GAO gives U.S. food safety low marks

[babylonsister]

GAO gives U.S. food safety low marks
Posted July 15, 2008 12:06 PM
The Swamp

by Stephen J. Hedges


The Government Accountability Office released an audit Monday suggesting at least six other countries and the European Union have better food safety systems than the United States.

The 97-page audit was requested by two of the most vocal food safety critics in Congress, Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, (D-Conn.).

Both have pressed for a single food safety agency instead of the dual system in the U.S. right now - the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates most foods, while the Department of Agriculture is responsible for meat, poultry and egg safety.

"I hope today's report serves as a wake-up call for the Administration and others in Congress," Durbin said. "We need a thoughtful overhaul and reorganization of America's food safety system."

The audit examined how six countries, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the E.U., reorganized food safety systems to work more efficiently. The GAO found that those nations do things better by taking a "farm to table approach."

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/07/gao_gives_us_food_safety_low_m.html

[indepat]

1. We don't have the money for a thoughtful overhaul and reorganization of our food safely

system, not when there are pre-emptive wars of aggression to be waged. Americans need not to be too concerned about the economy, the jobs market, the value of the dollar, the housing market, the deteriorating infrastructure, the savaged environment, the price of gasoline and energy to heat our homes, raging inflation, a third-world health delivery system, no none of these, for junior is keeping us safe from terra and fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here. We'll just all have to learn to suck it up on these other issues having no bearing on the quality of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness 'cause none of these has a bearing on our national security. :D

[babylonsister]

2. Sigh. It's a wonder we're not in straitjackets!

:hi:

[jedr]

3. as a state food inspector , I'm seeing it first hand;

USDA's budget is hit hard and industry fights us at every turn. Gas cost are eating up state budgets for surveillance inspections at store level. The fruit I'm looking at from Chile has never been examined from the time it was bagged in Chile. No trace backs on most vegetables. We are very vulnerable .

[indepat]

4. Damn, and those Oso sweet onions from Chile? are sooo good

:D

[jedr]

5. It's not so much as the quality is not in grade;

It's the fact that any raw fruits or vegetables can be contaminated very easily. Random sampling for pesticides, ecoli and other food-borne illness should be sop, but isn't. Wash the hell out of it!

[indepat]

6. Roger