A notable development

Another media briefing scheduled today, at 2 pm. This is the teaser that the FDA put in their media advisory:

A media briefing with experts from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to discuss a notable development in the ongoing investigation of the salmonella outbreak.

Perhaps the FDA will drop their consumer advisory on tomatoes today. We shall see. Even better would be announcement of a definitive finding in the traceback investigation.

One thing is clear. The FDA is getting more and more hits in the trade, the media and on Capitol Hill. Even food safety professionals have let loose a few broadsides.

Speaking of blaming regulators, I ask the question: Could tomatoes and salmonella be the tipping point for a single food safety agency in the U.S.? Highly committed lawmakers such as Rep. Rosa DeLauro have been pushing for a single food safety agency for years. A recent Government Accountability Office report looked at how eight countries with a single food safety agency framework manage their oversight.
And why do those countries have a single food safety agency? From the report:
“Officials stated that the UK consolidated its food safety system due to a loss of public confidence in food safety, which largely resulted from the government’s perceived mishandling of the BSE outbreak. By early 1999, the human form of BSE, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, had caused 35 deaths. It was widely perceived that the fragmented and decentralized food safety system allowed this outbreak to occur.”

Though the turf wars about jurisdiction would make a betting man put his money on the status quo, it is the public who may demand action of lawmakers. BSE was to the United Kingdom what E. coli and salmonella are becoming to the U.S.