FDA not efficient in food safety recalls, according to investigators

The federal Food & Drug Administration puts lives at risk by not moving swiftly enough on food recalls, according to an ongoing audit of the recall program by the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Responding to the report in a statement on its website, the FDA said: “During a almost three-year period recently reviewed by the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), the FDA oversaw thousands of food recalls, with an average time for recall initiation of less than a week….”

“FDA does not have adequate policies and procedures to ensure that firms take prompt and effective action in initiating voluntary food recalls”, the report said. Among those cases was a recall of Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter that took over five months between the agency first identifying it as a potential problem and the company issuing a recall, and a case of Listeria-contaminated cheese that took nearly three months. A lack of standard procedure and timelines meant that “consumers remained at risk. several weeks after FDA was aware of a potentially hazardous food in the supply chain”, the report said. “Some recalls start small and they grow”, he said.

The watchdog urged the FDA to address the problem immediately. The alert focuses in particular on two recalls in which the companies did not initiate recalls of all affected products for months despite the fact that FDA notified them as soon as the agency had evidence of a contamination.

A report published in FDA said, “Recalls of potentially unsafe foods are an important food safety tool”. They’re taking the unusual step of issuing an alert, saying the FDA took too long to get companies to pull some contaminated food products from shelves, putting consumers in danger, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

The audit follows up on a 2011 report in which the inspector general found that the FDA didn’t have the authority to require food makers to recall certain foods and the FDA didn’t always follow through on its own procedures.

Food companies usually opt to voluntarily recall contaminated products, but the FDA has the authority to issue a mandatory recall in case of inaction.

Dr. Steven Ostroff, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine is defending the agency.

In a statement, FDA said that during the three-year period reviewed by the IG, it “oversaw thousands of food recalls, with an average time for recall initiation of less than a week”. The recalls for the products were issued months after the problem was first discovered.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D) of CT, who oversees food and drug safety for an FDA-focused house subcommittee, called the absence of procedure and recall timelines “mind boggling”. They also cited FDA’s adoption in 2014 of the use of whole genome sequencing, a more precise technology for determining the genetic fingerprint of foodborne pathogens.

“FDA should take very seriously this alert from the Inspector General”, said Sandra Eskin, director of food safety at The Pew Charitable Trusts. It’s setting up an internal review group that can push for quicker action on recalls when needed. “We act upon the best information available at the time”.