GAO testimony

Here is the link to a GAO testimony on food safety yesterday before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.
Some highlights:

For example, the majority of federal expenditures for food safety inspection were directed toward USDA’s programs for ensuring the safety of meat, poultry, and egg products; however, USDA is responsible for regulating only about 20 percent of the food supply. In contrast, FDA, which is responsible for regulating about 80 percent of the food supply, accounted for only about 24 percent of expenditures.

We have proposed that Congress consider legislation that would require companies to alert USDA or FDA when they discover they have distributed potentially unsafe food and that would give both agencies mandatory food recall authority. Congress has not enacted legislation granting agencies general mandatory recall authority. We have also recommended that USDA and FDA better track and manage food recalls, achieve more prompt and complete recalls, and determine if additional ways are needed to alert consumers about recalled food that they may have in their homes.

The recent outbreaks of E. coli in spinach and Salmonella in peanut butter, along with outbreaks of contaminated pet food, underscore the need of a broad-based transformation of the federal oversight of food safety to achieve greater economy, efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, and sustainability. GAO’s high-risk designation raises the priority and visibility of this necessary transformation and thus can bring needed attention to address the weaknesses caused by a fragmented system. Among the reasons we designated the federal oversight of food safety as a high-risk area is that USDA and FDA have limited recall authority.

TK: An expression goes that 20% of the people do 80% of the work in a church or any organization. The FDA is taking that a step further; it receives 20% of food safety dollars and is responsible for 80% of the food. Beyond more bucks for FDA, the GAO favors a unified food safety agency and expanded FDA authority.