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Surur Fatema Sajanlal is a NJPIRG Program Associate – promoted by Rosi

You might be tempted to pass over the plethora of food safety news thinking that the danger presented by the Wright County Egg recall has passed… You might- unless you live in the Northeast and spat out your milk two weeks ago, because, as you were taking that long pull of delicious white cream straight from the carton, your morning news show announced that your milk hadn’t been properly pasteurized… Thinking to yourself, “You’ve got to be kidding me. Again?!” you grumble about the bureaucratic inefficiency of our food safety net, wonder what the FDA is for in the first place, and stump out the door.



Jump with me:

But recalls happen almost every week, sometimes multiple times a week. In fact, the New Jersey Public Interest Group (NJPIRG) released a study last week, identifying 61 recalls over 13 months (56 weeks) in New Jersey alone. This led to 144 reported cases of food borne illnesses among the citizens of New Jersey. The irony of it all is that these recalls happened while citizens wait for the Senate to pass pending legislation to strengthen our broken food safety system.

To name a few of the most recent recalls in New Jersey: milk, cheese, alfalfa sprouts, spinach, and of course, eggs, were all recalled during the summer and into the beginning of the back-to-school season.

So what is it about our food safety system that is simply not working?

FDA Chief Margaret Hamburg said it herself- The FDA does not have the authority to do its job. Regular inspections and the authority to mandate recalls of unsafe foods are two valuable tools that the FDA does not posses under current law.

In spite of the systemic failure that limits the FDA’s authority to enact preventative food safety measures, the FDA also does do its job on the reactionary front. The FDA does an excellent job fulfilling its mandate – accurately tracing the causes of food borne illnesses to specific contaminated barns, not just whole farms or processing facilities. And of course, negotiating a 550 million egg recall with Jack DeCoster, the owner of Wright County Egg, is no mean feat – especially as the man has shown a decades-long, reckless abandon for public safety and federal regulation. In terms of an arbitrary point system, we can award 2 points to the FDA.

The lingering question – why is the FDA’s mandate limited to a reactionary stance? Why did Jack DeCoster even have the opportunity to endanger the public welfare?

Here, we may deduct 26 points from the Senate – 2 for each month the public has had to wait for stronger food safety legislation to pass. The Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.2749) passed the House in July of 2009, and the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) unanimously passed a bipartisan committee the following November. With seven Republican and eight Democratic cosigners, S. 510 is hardly a partisan bill, and hardly the work of a single side of the aisle.

Unfortunately, with the election looming on the horizon, time is running out for the Senate to address food safety in a serious way, before its members shift their focus to campaigns.

With 5000 deaths per year nationally, the Senate should make the time to vote on this common sense legislation and take the time to protect the American Consumer, despite the prospect of a grueling campaign season.

To our respected Senators Menendez and Lautenberg – Thank you for your support of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. Please go a step further to protect consumers in your state by urging the Senate leadership to overlook election year politics and bring this bill to the Senate floor for a vote.

NJPIRG study “Recipe for Disaster”

Sign the petition, urging our Senators to help bring the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to the Senate floor for a vote.