Could the FDA have any less power?
One has to wonder…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lacks access to food safety tests that could have helped identify problems at a peanut plant at the center of one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history, members of Congress said on Thursday.
The salmonella outbreak traced to a Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Georgia, has sickened more than 550 people, more than half of them children, and may be linked to eight deaths.
"We would like to have more information. There is no question," Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, told a hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
Under law, a company does not have to notify the agency if it discovers salmonella or other contamination. The only time FDA can require information from a plant is if tainted product was shipped from it. (Emphasis added.)
Source: FDA lacks access to food safety records: Congress | Health | Reuters
I’m so glad the FDA is charged with keeping us safe.