Washington, Apr. 24 - U.S. government agencies should have greater powers to recall contaminated food and are too reliant on producers to protect consumers from food-borne illnesses, Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday.
A string of food poisoning cases tied to peanut butter, lettuce and bagged spinach have prompted consumer groups and others to question whether the way the Food and Drug Administration oversees the food supply is too passive.
The FDA regulates about 80 percent of the supply, mostly fruits and vegetables and the U.S. Agriculture Department is responsible for the rest, including meat, poultry and eggs.
"The FDA simply does not have enough authority to investigate these situations," said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations.
"We need to reform the system. The FDA has become too reliant on the industry to police itself," she said.
The FDA did not respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this year, ConAgra Foods Inc. recalled Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter after an outbreak of salmonella sickened 329 people, sending 51 of them to the hospital. Last year three people died and more than 200 became infected after E. coli was found in bagged spinach.
Yet under current law FDA cannot order a company to conduct a food recall unless it is infant formula. In January the Government Accountability Office, an investigative body of Congress, designated food safety as a "high-risk" issue to public health and the economy.
The GAO proposed the federal government require companies to report the distribution of a potentially unsafe products and give FDA and USDA recall authority. It proposed consolidating the 15 government agencies that handle food safety under one roof.
"We believe (the current system) does heighten the risk that" there will be increased illness and death, said Lisa Shames, an acting director with the GAO. She said giving FDA more power "has the potential of expediting the recall."
U.S. food companies ConAgra and Natural Selection Foods said they would not object to tighter government regulations but that ultimately it is up to individual food companies and the industry to improve food safety.
"It's incumbent upon ConAgra to take responsibility for food safety and recalls when that is appropriate," said David Colo, the company's senior vice president of manufacturing. "FDA having recall authority would be fine with us. It wouldn't change anything we've done to date."
Consumers affected by the recent outbreaks told lawmakers the current system of regulating food has shown that what's in place now simply isn't working.
"I can't protect (my children) from spinach, only you guys can," said Michael Armstrong, whose young daughters ages 2 and 5 contracted E. coli after eating a bag of triple-washed Dole Food spinach last September.