Liz Szabo of USA Today writes contaminated food has remained on the shelf for months because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration sometimes moves too slowly to force food manufacturers to recall it, according to a report released Thursday by a watchdog agency inside the Department of Health and Human Services.
TOTAL RECALL, Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1990
In one case, the manufacturer of a nut butter took 165 days to recall a product contaminated with salmonella according to the report from the Office of the Inspector General, which looked at 30 recalls between 2012 and 2015. Fourteen people in 11 states became ill in the outbreak.
“Consumers remained at risk of illness or death for several weeks after FDA knew of potentially hazardous food,” according to a preliminary report from an ongoing audit.
In another series of recalls, at least nine people became ill, including a baby who died, from listeria bacteria in cheese. Two women also miscarried. Yet “81 days passed from the date FDA became aware of the adulterated product and the date the firm had voluntarily recalled all affected products,” according to the report.
The FDA doesn’t have an “efficient and effective” process to set a deadline for food manufacturers to voluntarily recall tainted food, a problem that requires the FDA’s “immediate attention,” according to the report. The FDA must give companies a chance to recall products voluntarily, before announcing a mandatory recall.
The new report is not the first to find problems with food recalls. A 2011 audit also found the recall program was “inadequate.”
In a statement, the FDA called the delays “unacceptable,” but noted that recalls are generally issued within an average of about a week.
“Public health is our top priority and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration works hard to ensure the U.S. food supply remains among the safest in the world,” the FDA said in a statement. “A small number of these recalls fell well outside of that average, with months passing before all impacted products were taken off shelves, even though the FDA notified the companies involved of a contamination as soon as it had evidence. . . . The recall process should be as swift as possible.”
We found that FDA did not have an efficient and effective food recall initiation process that helps ensure the safety of the Nation’s food supply. Specifically, FDA did not have policies and procedures to ensure that firms1 or responsible parties2 (collectively referred to in this document as “firms”) initiated voluntary food recalls promptly. This issue is a significant matter and requires FDA’s immediate attention. … We suggest that FDA revise its policies and procedures to instruct recall staff to establish set timeframes for (1) FDA to request that firms voluntarily recall their products and (2) firms to initiate voluntary food recalls.
The information in this early alert is preliminary, and the audit is continuing. We will issue a draft report at the conclusion of the audit and include comments and actions taken in response to this early alert.