Testimony - Contaminated Food

Here is the link to the testimony from the Feb. 26 hearing of the Contaminated Food: Private Sector Accountability at the subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. Excerpts below:

William Marler Marler Clark LLP PS
A year ago, I was asked by the spinach and lettuce growers of California to address them in Salinas. Considering that by then the leafy green industry was on its knees financially and I had lawsuits pending in several states, it was a tense lunch. Why I was invited? I am still not so sure, but why I was suing them was all too clear, in the prior 10 years there had been 21 outbreaks related to fresh leafy products with hundreds sickened. In 2006, 205 people became sick and five died from eating E. coli contaminated spinach, followed quickly by lettuce E. coli cases at Taco Bell and Taco John’s. The common denominators – California lettuce and more lawsuits. Mexico banned the importation of California spinach and lettuce.
I told the quiet audience of 250 growers and producers a story that I believed at the time to be true. I told them about what I had seen since the 1993 Jack in the Box case. I told them what seemed to have happened after the Jack in the Box crisis was that incidences of E. coli in meat seemed to decline. First slowly and then more rapidly. I told them how I believed that the problem – through governmental oversight and industry know how. I told them that I had lived to see one of the major food safety success stories of
our time. According to the CDC, E. coli outbreaks linked to tainted meat had declined by 42 percent through 2006. I told them that they should emulate what the beef industry had done to put me out of business, because they had. From 1993 to 2002, nearly all of my work was E. coli cases tied to hamburger. In 2003, one year after the recall of 19 million of pounds of meat, I had no ambulance to chase. I had no one to sue on behalf of victims of tainted hamburger because I had no victims.
And then the spring of 2007 started with an ominous “uptick” in E. coli recalls and illnesses and ended with hundreds sickened, 33 million pounds of meat recalled, and guess what? More sick and dead children, and yes, more lawsuits. China banned the import of some US beef. If you ask the USDA and industry to explain this “uptick,” they have none. That is unacceptable.
Things are different from Sinclair’s critical view of packing plants of the 1900’s. We now face things Sinclair could not even begin to imagine. Those two things must drive food safety decisions now. The first is the threat of terrorist attacks via the food system. Just as too many could not imagine the horror of 9/11, too many cannot envision this kind of food disaster today. When a terrorist attacks our food system it will look eerily similar to any other outbreak of foodborne illness. Second, is the growth of food imports. Sinclair could not have imagined a world where the meat that may be in one hamburger could originate in Argentina, Canada and Colorado or that we would have fruits and vegetables year-round shipped in from South America, Asia and Africa. It is with these two enormous issues in mind, that I offer suggestions on how to put me out of business

David DeLorenzo President and Chief Executive Officer, Dole Food Company, Inc.
We respectfully ask this Subcommittee, and, more generally, the Energy and Commerce Committee, to do whatever it can within its power to influence significant funding of pathogen research for produce. Private companies such as Dole will continue to accelerate and champion, as fast as possible, new practices and technologies aimed at eliminating food safety risks. Produce is a living, breathing tissue that does not hold up to most conventional food safety practices that work in other industries. We cannot inspect our way out of food safety problems any more than we can test our way out of it. It will continue to take a concerted and significant effort in time and funding and regulation from both the government and private sector, to make our food system – already the safest in the world -- even safer. We heartily agree with this Subcommittee that we – all of us – can, in good conscience, do no less.

Robert Brackett Senior Vice President and Chief Science and Regulatory Affairs Officer, Grocery Manufacturers Association

One, we urge you to require that every food importer of record institute a foreign supplier quality assurance program that assures that all imported ingredients and products meet FDA food safety and quality requirements.
Two, we urge you to expand FDA’s ability to build the capacity of foreign governments to prevent and detect threats to food safety. In particular, FDA should be directed to work with foreign governments to expand training, accelerate the development of laboratories, ensure the compliance of exports with U.S. regulations, and harmonize food safety requirements among countries.
Three, we urge you to enhance FDA’s ability to target those imports that pose the greatest risk to consumers. In particular, we urge you to create a voluntary program to permit expedited entry of foods that pose no meaningful risk. By permitting food importers who demonstrate the existence of a secure supply chain and who meet FDA’s standards and conditions to receive expedited entry, FDA could focus more scrutiny on those imports that are more likely to pose a risk to public health.
Four, we urge you to provide FDA authority to mandate that fruits and vegetables be produced following good agricultural practices. Rising consumption of fruits and vegetables creates new food safety challenges that should be addressed through strong and enforceable produce safety standards which can be tailored to reflect differences among commodities.
Five, we urge you to give FDA the authority to order a mandatory recall when a company has refused to conduct a voluntary recall and there is a significant risk to public health. Where the responsible party refuses to voluntarily recall a product for which there is a reasonable probability that the food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death, the Secretary should be permitted to order the company to conduct a recall.
Finally, we urge you to work with your colleagues on the appropriations committee to provide FDA with adequate resources. Because FDA food-related funding has not kept pace with inflation, more than 800 scientists, inspectors and other critical staff have been lost during the past four years. We urge you to reject taxes on food imports and facilities and to instead work with the Alliance for a Stronger FDA to increase FDA food-related spending by $150 million in FY 2009.