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July 15, 2008 |
| GAO Criticizes FDA Food Plan |
| Show details, investigative agency says |
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress, isn't pleased with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) these days.
FDA is missing an opportunity to reassure that it is doing all it can to protect the nation's food supply. -Lisa R. Shames, Government Accountability Office |
The FDA has offered few details about the resources it needs to implement its Food Protection Plan, released in November 2007, GAO spokeswoman Lisa R. Shames said in a June 12 U.S. House subcommittee hearing. The GAO wants the agency to make public a draft report on the plan.
"As we testified, in the absence of public reporting, neither Congress nor the public can gauge [the FDA's] progress with the plan," says GAO spokeswoman Lisa R. Shames. "FDA is missing an opportunity to reassure that it is doing all it can to protect the nation's food supply."
Shames said FDA officials told GAO officials they had prepared a draft report on progress made in implementing the Food Protection Plan, but that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had not cleared it for release. Sebastian M. Cianci, FDA press liaison, confirmed that as of June 25, the HHS had not yet cleared the draft report.
According to a separate GAO report, the FDA intends to spend $90 million over fiscal years 2008 and 2009 "to implement several key actions, such as identifying food vulnerabilities and risk," but it's unclear what the agency needs to do it.
"Based on FDA estimates, if FDA were to inspect each of the approximately 65,500 domestic food firms regulated by FDA once, the total cost would be approximately $524 million," the report states.
Also, says the GAO report, "timelines for implementing the various strategies in the plan are unclear, although a senior level FDA official estimated that the overall plan will take five years to complete."
What also has the GAO miffed is that, to date, the FDA has implemented just seven of the 34 food safety recommendations made by the GAO in 2004. For example, in January 2004, GAO recommended that the FDA make it a priority to establish equivalence agreements with other countries. But, as of May 2008, the FDA has not yet established equivalence agreements with any foreign countries, the report states. |
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