Looking to Obama to bring logic to food safety

Jan. 12, 2009 – For reasons that defy logic, the United States' food safety functions are
split. The Agriculture Department inspects about 20 percent of the food
supply (meat and poultry), and the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for almost everything else.

Jan. 12, 2009 – For reasons that defy logic, the United States' food safety functions are
split. The Agriculture Department inspects about 20 percent of the food
supply (meat and poultry), and the Food and Drug Administration is responsible for almost everything else.

And yet the Agriculture Department receives a majority of federal food safety dollars.

The
division of labor creates internal squabbling and some bizarre
situations. Frozen cheese pizzas are inspected by the F.D.A., pepperoni
pizzas by the Agriculture Department. Fresh eggs are under the
jurisdiction of the F.D.A.; egg products go to Agriculture.

That this makes no sense is no secret. It’s why Sen. Richard J. Durbin,
Democrat of Illinois, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of
Connecticut, have raised again and again the idea of creating a single
food agency – so far, though, to no avail. | FULL STORY