What FDA knew and when they knew it

This UPI story highlights a strange reality that occasionally occurs in newspapering. News that isn't the news, presumed scandal when none exists. This story follows on a story in The Washington Post earlier, covered in this blog post, headlined "FDA Was Aware of Dangers To Food" with a tagline that "Outbreaks Were Not Preventable, Officials Say"

Here is the lede of the UPI piece:

The Food and Drug Administration has known for years about contamination problems at a Georgia peanut butter plant and on California spinach farms that led to disease outbreaks that killed three people, sickened hundreds, and forced one of the biggest product recalls in U.S. history, documents and interviews show.

TK: Of course the FDA wasis aware of food safety concerns. It has been communicating steadily with the industry over the past few years about the need for commodity specific guidance.

The FDA sent a letter to California growers in 2005 expressing "serious concern" about foodborne illness outbreaks from lettuce and spinach crops in the state, which at the time had totaled 19 since 1995, CBS News reported Tuesday.

TK: The way this is written makes it sound as if the existence of this letter is recent news. Not so. I was at FDA's headquarters in December 2005 and had asked Brackett about the letter, which was posted on the FDA's Web site.

However, no action was taken and the FDA instead urged the industry to take "the appropriate measures to provide a safe product." The E.coli outbreak a year after the warning left three people dead and more than 200 sickened.

"Sadly, today this great Food and Drug Administration, when it comes to food safety, has become the weakest link," Sen. Richard Durban, D-Ill., said. Officials said the FDA, which is responsible for 80 percent of the nation's grown foods -- compared to 20 percent under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Agriculture -- has far fewer inspectors than the other agency.
"If products are regulated by FDA, like seafood and produce and grains, they might only see an inspector once every five or 10 years," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

TK: Protestations to the contrary, these stories state FDA "took no action" after previous outbreaks. While the industry leaders like Bryan Silbermann and Tom Stenzel have called for more consultations before the FDA makes public statements about foodborne illness outbreak, stories like these increase pressure on the agency to shout from the rooftops any scrap of information they have.