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FDA to have greater food regulation powers

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States is to have greater authority over the regulation of food under new legislation from the Department of Health and Human Services.

The proposed bill, the Food Safety Enforcement and Enhancement Act of 1997, authorises the FDA to recall foods deemed to be a public health hazard. The bill would also allow the administration to levy monetary penalties for food related violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Although the United States's food supply is among the world's safest, millions of Americans a year are affected by foodborne illnesses. An estimated 9000 people, mostly young, elderly, or immunocompromised, die annually as a result. Recently several incidents of widespread foodborne illnesses have been well publicised–for example, in connection with hamburger meat infected with Escherichia coli and fruits and vegetables contaminated with cyclospora and the hepatitis virus.

View larger version (84K): [in this window] [in a new window]   The United States has been hit by a number of food scares recently DONNEZAN/RAPHO/NETWORK

Currently, the FDA cannot authorise the recall of food; the process is voluntary and dependent on the goodwill and cooperation of the food industry. If companies are uncooperative, all the administration can do is create negative publicity and seek a court order to seize food. Until now, enforcement options were limited to seeking court injunctions against unsafe or mislabelled foods–a process that is both costly and time consuming.

In January, President Bill Clinton announced a food safety initiative designed to overhaul the archaic food inspection system. A total of $43m (£27m) was budgeted for modernising food inspections, tracking foodborne illnesses, identifying emerging pathogens, and developing better microbial contaminant and containment methods. From this budget $24m was earmarked for the FDA. (See p 619.)

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