FDA Oversight of State Inspections Sub Par

The recent peanut salmonella scare in Georgia is in part attributed to decreasing rigor in the FDA inspection process.  The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:

From 2003 to 2006, the FDA cut its inspection force by 12 percent, according to a report by Waxman, the California congressman. During the same period, Waxman found, the number of inspections dropped by 32 percent.

The FDA has increased its reliance on state inspections, according to the Health and Human Services inspector general. But states vary in how stringently they inspect food facilities, have differing levels of enforcement authority and set their own examination schedules, the inspector general said in a report. Still, the report said, the FDA doesn’t adequately monitor state inspections, raising concerns “about the quality and uniformity” of food inspections. Halloran, of the Consumers Union, said federal authorities should have retooled the inspection system after earlier breakdowns caused widespread illnesses.

“We obviously have a problem here with inspection and enforcement,” she said. “It isn’t that states can’t do it. But the FDA doesn’t seem to have been supervising the state of Georgia or to have been in much touch with what the state was doing.”

The entire article can be found here.

KP