Can Bureaucracy Stop Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7?

The Obama administration has taken the initiative to begin the much needed overhaul of the current food safety system.  The president commissioned a food safety program in March of 2009 under the name Food Safety Working Group and yesterday announced that the FDA will be adopting new standards of food safety and food safety protocols. President Obama proclaimed the new rules“will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me on how we can upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws that will keep the American people safe, but enforcing them.”

The recommendations of the Food Safety Working Group are as follows.

• Health and Human Services (HHS) and USDA are targeting salmonella contamination by developing tougher standards to protect the safety of eggs, poultry, and turkey.
• To fight the threat of E. coli, USDA is stepping up enforcement in beef facilities and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is developing new industry guidance improving protections for leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes.
• The Obama Administration is building a new national traceback and response system including clearer industry guidance, a new unified incident command system, and improved use of technology to deliver individual food safety alerts to consumers. 
• Finally, the Administration announced a plan to strengthen the organization of federal food safety functions, including the creation of new positions at key food safety agencies and a continuing oversight role for the Food Safety Working Group.

While I am hopeful that these new protocols and standards will benefit the American people, I am also skeptical. We’ll see if the government and its agencies can effectively implement and follow through on these rules. What we need is real change at the FDA and long term safety improvement in our food supply.

I’m, of course, pleased that problems with our current system are being addressed. I hope more people working in FDA oversight will improve the agency and not just create more  bureaucracy… especially the special kind of American bureaucracy that makes even the most well intentioned leaders ineffective and the most organized people seem like they are part of a three ring circus.

But right now, the President and his administration deserve a “hats off” for at least addressing the issues that plague our current food safety network. I’ll save my applause for when they start getting the job done.