WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration, which regulates much of the United States food supply, will join a sister agency in asking Congress for more power to keep tainted food off the dinner table, acting commissioner Michael Friedman said on Friday.
Friedman announced the initiative on the same day that Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, following the recall of a record 25 million pounds of hamburger patties, asked for broader powers to keep tainted meat away from consumers.
In both cases, regulators want the authority to mandate a recall -- they now are voluntary -- and the power to impose fines of up to $100,000 for a violation. Glickman said the meat bill would go to Congress next week.
"My hope is (to submit the bill) next week as well," Friedman said in an interview. The bill would apply to all foods under FDA jurisdiction. The major segments are seafood, raw foods and packaged foods.
Currently, the FDA cannot mandate a food recall nor can it impose civil fines for food safety violations. It can recall medical devices, however.
"We're persuaded that if it is appropriate to have (these powers), and we believe it is, then the food system should have them, not a particular agency," Friedman said. "I believe this ... reflects the true, close working relationshp between those parts of government that try to protect the public's food supply."
One federal official said FDA was "piggybacking" onto public sentiment for safer foods generated by the hamburger recall. A meat industry official and a consumer activist agreed that the fate of the bills might turn on the depth and duration of public cries for reform.
"Public opinion will be a powerful tool on this subject in the foreseeable future," Carol Tucker Foreman, a leader of the Safe Food Coalition of consumer, health and labor groups said. Foreman oversaw meat inspection under Jimmy Carter.
The consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest applauded the two-pronged request for more food-safety power.
"FDA should have the same authorities" as the Agriculture Department, CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson said.
Earlier this month, a food distributer in Marietta, Georgia, refused to help FDA track down or recall some smoked salmon that might have contained the disease-causing Listeria organism.
Jacobson cited recent outbreaks of illnesses blamed on harmful organisms in apple cider, alfalfa sprouts and frozen strawberries -- "None of that is Agriculture Deprtment business." The food distributor's refusal to recall the suspect smoked salmon, he said, demonstrated why recalls "should not rely on a company's good will."
Food industry groups characterized the meat-safety bill as a grab for power when consumers would be better served by more attention to enforcement of existing rules or finding ways to prevent food contamination. Jacobson said foodmakers probably would be just as strong in opposition to broader FDA powers.
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