In response to the recent spate of food-safety incidents and the subsequent, and highly predictable, outbreak of media and congressional outrage, FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach recently announced the creation of a new position: assistant commissioner for food protection. Moving into this new position is Dr. David Acheson, the current chief medical officer and director of the Office of Food Defense, Communication and Emergency Response at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
While making this announcement, Commissioner von Eschenbach made the following statement: “The protection of America’s food supply, and therefore the safety of Americans eating food of domestic or international origin, is of utmost impotance to me as a physician, and to the mission of this agency. We’ve seen a rapid transformation of the food-safety system due to advances in production technology, rapid methods of distribution and the globalization of food sources. Acheson’s wealth of experience, and knowledge of the science behind food protection, will help the agency keep pace with this transformation in order to ensure that the safety and nutritional value of our food supply is second to none.”
Hold it right there! “Keep pace”? I don’t think so!
Over the past 20 years or so, the very advances the commissioner mentioned, in technology and distribution, as well as globalization in general, have far outpaced FDA’s ability to “keep pace.” No matter how hard the dedicated staffs of FDA, USDA and other government agencies have tried, they continually have fallen further and further behind ... and it’s not their fault. The very people who will be calling Acheson to account the next time a food safety issue hits the headlines are the real problem.
I don’t know about you, but I am getting more and more upset and frustrated with politicians who are more interested in generating sound bites for their next campaign than in funding the tools to get the job done.
Until the politicians loosen the purse strings and specifically earmark funds to dramatically increase FDA’s ability to hire more inspectors, I’m afraid all of Acheson’s efforts will be for naught. So long as Congress continues to “talk the talk” but refuses to “walk the walk,” FDA will be forced to continue to operate with one hand tied behind its back.
