The Food and Drug Administration was given new authority four years ago to help prevent foodborne illnesses, but Americans are now worried their next bite of ice cream or hummus could contain deadly bacteria.
Food safety is back in the headlines this week as Blue Bell Creameries expanded a recall this week of ice cream products made at an Oklahoma plant, and Sabra recalled approximately 30,000 cases of hummus. In addition, Amy’s Kitchen Company, Twin City Foods and Wegmans all recalled products late last month potentially containing contaminated spinach from a supplier.
All the recalls were due to potential contamination from listeria, a bacteria that can kill older, younger or frail people.
Listeria is a very deadly pathogen that is easy to spread as it grows in cold places unlike other types of bacteria. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that listeria sickens 1,600 a year and kills 260 people.
So far about eight illnesses and three deaths are connected to the Blue Bell products, the CDC said. So far no deaths or illnesses have been linked to the hummus and the spinach recalls.
It is important to remember that listeria is an uncommon pathogen. The CDC estimates that in 2013, the latest year of data available, there was .26 cases of listeria per 100,000 people.
Congress passed a law in 2011 called the Food Safety and Modernization Act in response to a rash of foodborne outbreaks. However, the FDA needs more funds to implement it, a leading safety advocate says.
“Listeria is the poster child for why the FDA needs to have enough resources,” Jaydee Hanson, senior policy analyst for the Center for Food Safety, told the Washington Examiner.
The law requires food processing plants adopt a new food safety plan that identifies the hazards to food produced at the facility and how they can be avoided. If Blue Bell or Sabra had such plans in place, they might have been able to find the listeria quicker, said Hanson said.
Food safety advocates aren’t the only ones pushing for more funding.
The Grocer Manufacturers Association, a powerful food brand industry group, also supports additional funds for “this groundbreaking food safety law,” spokesman Brian Kennedy told the Washington Examiner.
President Obama asked for a more than $300 million boost in FDA funding in his fiscal 2016 budget primarily for FSMA implementation.
It remains to be seen what House and Senate appropriators will provide the requested funding when they return next week. However, one portion of the administration’s request is likely to be a non-starter.
Of the $301 million the president is requesting, $191 million would come from user fees paid by the food processing industry. The rest would come from an increase in funding.
The administration has proposed user fees for the food industry before and it has never gone anywhere, and this time doesn’t look any different.
“User fees aren’t going to get through Congress,” said Patricia Buck, executive director of the Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention. She said Congress would have to “bite the bullet and provide [the FDA] with more money.”
The Center for Food Safety sued the FDA because it was so slow in implementing the law. The agency now must implement numerous rules surrounding the law this year per a court order.
Back in September, the agency released four revised proposed rules that implement the safety plan requirements and other regulations. The FDA hopes to publish the final rules later this year, and give companies about a year to comply.
The agency did not return multiple requests for comment as of press time.
