Milling & Baking News - March 24, 2009 - 26

Washington

Obama in weekly address discusses
food safety, names head of F.D.A.
Continued from Page 1

bipartisan support to modernize and
strengthen the food safety activities of
the Food and Drug Administration.
Specific steps to enhance food safety detailed by Mr. Obama included
spending $1 billion on the F.D.A.
"We are strengthening our food safety
system and modernizing our labs with
a billion dollar investment, a portion of
which will go toward significantly increasing the number of food inspectors,
helping ensure that the F.D.A. has the
staff and support they need to protect
the food we eat," Mr. Obama said.
The amount of money cited caught
the ear of Peter Barton Hutt, an attorney
with Covington and Burling in Washington and a former F.D.A. official.
"To me it's not so much what the
president said that's significant but
the unbelievable increase in funding
for food safety," Mr. Hutt said. "The
F.D.A. is expected to get $1 billion for
food safety in the budget for 2010."
He noted the entire budget for the
Center for Food Safety and Applied
Nutrition in fiscal 2007 was $160 million and for field operations that year
it was $300 million.
With the stepped-up spending
looming, Mr. Hutt said food companies will have a relatively brief period
of time in which to "toughen up their
own self regulation."
Mr. Obama began his address by noting that the United States is "one of the
safest places in the world" to buy groceries at a supermarket. In recent years,
though, a number of problems have
emerged, beginning with contaminated
spinach in 2006, Salmonella in peppers
and possibly tomatoes in 2008 and illnesses and deaths from peanut products
earlier this year, the president said.
"Worse, these incidents reflect a
troubling trend that's seen the average
number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods grow
to nearly 350 a year - up from 100 a
year in the early 1990s," Mr. Obama
said. "Part of the reason is that many
of the laws and regulations governing
food safety in America have not been
updated since they were written in the
time of Teddy Roosevelt.
"It's also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread
out so widely among so many people
that it's difficult for different parts of
our government to share information,
work together, and solve problems.
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And it's also because the F.D.A. has
been underfunded and understaffed
in recent years, leaving the agency
with the resources to inspect just 7,000
of our 150,000 food processing plants
and warehouses each year. That means
roughly 95% of them go uninspected."
Describing the status quo as "unacceptable," Mr. Obama said the situation would change.
Dr. Hamburg, Mr. Obama's selection for commissioner of the F.D.A.,
was the founding vice-president for
the biological program at the Nuclear
Threat Initiative. Earlier, she was assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health

contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a
week. No parent should have to worry
that their child is going to get sick from
their lunch, just as no family should
have to worry that the medicines they
buy will cause them harm. Protecting
the safety of our food and drugs is one
of the most fundamental responsibilities government has, and, with the outstanding team I am announcing today, it
is a responsibility that I intend to uphold
in the months and years to come."
With caveats, the baking industry
expressed strong support for the president's position.
"The American Bakers Association
strongly agrees with President Obama's
call for increased funding for the Food

'We are strengthening our food safety system
and modernizing our labs with a billion dollar
investment, a portion of which will go toward
significantly increasing the number of food
inspectors, helping ensure that the F.D.A. has
the staff and support they need to protect the
food we eat.'
- President Barack Obama

and Human Services, the Commissioner of Health in New York and the
assistant director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
of the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Sharfstein is Commissioner of
Health for Baltimore.
"Their critical work and the critical
work of the F.D.A. they lead will be
part of a larger effort taken up by a new
Food Safety Working Group I am creating," the president said. "This Working
Group will bring together cabinet secretaries and senior officials to advise me
on how we can upgrade our food safety
laws for the 21st century; foster coordination throughout government; and ensure that we are not just designing laws
that will keep the American people safe,
but enforcing them. And I expect this
group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible."
During the address, Mr. Obama repeated a comment he made last month
on the NBC Today Show about how
the peanut product recall touched him
personally.
"In the end, food safety is something
I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent," he said. "When
I heard peanut products were being

and Drug Administration's food safety
activities," said Robb MacKie, A.B.A.
president and chief executive officer.
"F.D.A. has gone woefully underfunded for many years, and only through
direct appropriations can F.D.A. fulfill
its food safety responsibilities."
The A.B.A. is a member of the Alliance for a Stronger F.D.A., an organization made up of food producers, consumer advocates, public health interests
and patient groups. The A.B.A. and the
alliance have been calling on Congress
to dramatically increase funding for
F.D.A. food safety responsibilities."
"An additional $1 billion in appropriated funds for F.D.A. is the right
step to take, especially when alternatives could negatively impact businesses and consumers alike," said Lee
Sanders, senior vice-president of government relations and public affairs at
A.B.A. "The last thing we should force
upon food producers and consumers
during a recession is increased ingredient and food costs. User fee schemes
that have been included in some food
safety legislative proposals would
negatively impact businesses and ultimately American consumers and is not
the right approach." MBN
Milling & Baking News

March 24, 2009 / 27

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Milling & Baking News - March 24, 2009

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