Food safety system in crisis: House

By Christopher Doering

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are skeptical of imported food and other products after repeated safety scares, said lawmakers on Wednesday, who want to give the Food and Drug Administration more power to inspect imports and recall defective ones.

The "system has pretty much fallen apart from top to bottom," said Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, at a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing. "People are shocked by the continuing number of food safety issues we have."

Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the full committee, said there was "a significant crisis in confidence of imported food and other products. The Michigan Democrat, whose committee oversees the FDA, is sponsor of a bill to increase the agency's inspection of imports and to recall unacceptable products.

The FDA is in charge of 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, mostly fruits, vegetables and processed foods, and has been criticized as being too passive in handling the growing surge of imports into the United States. Total imports, including food, have doubled since 2000 to $2 trillion annually.

"We think there is a lot of room for improvement," said Randall Lutter, FDA's associate commissioner for policy and planning. "We are developing very actively and very vigorously a food protection strategy."

FDA said it wants to transform itself from one that reacts to situations, largely through inspections and interventions.

The new "risk-based" strategy would include inspections as part of a broader program that looks at the life cycle of the product including where and how it was produced, where it was stored and previous history.

"It is obvious," said Dr. David Acheson, FDA's assistant commissioner for food protection, that FDA needs more authority to do its job.