Federal lawmakers are looking to reform the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates drugs and 80 percent of the food Americans eat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates the other 20 percent of food—generally meat. Despite that the FDA monitors the overwhelming majority of this nation’s food, it only received a fraction of the funding and the staffing of the USDA.
Meanwhile, we have long been reporting on the issue of food regulation in the U.S. in the face of ongoing, often massive nationwide outbreaks of deadly food borne illnesses such as Salmonella, Listeria, and E. coli, to name a few. Given the recent problems with meat and produce that have sickened thousands and hospitalized dozens in the past couple of months, perhaps our food safety systems needs—if not an overhaul—some changes to better protect Americans. (more…)
