Can new food safety czar mend "broken" system?

WASHINGTON -- Bowing to growing nationwide concern, the Food and Drug Administration named a food safety "czar" Tuesday and pledged to develop "a visionary strategy for food safety and defense" that takes into account increasing U.S. dependence on food imports.

The move came as the agency said its investigation of contaminated pet-food ingredients from China has expanded to include feed given to millions of chickens in the U.S. that likely already have been consumed. Officials say they do not believe the chickens pose any risk for the people who ate them.

The food-safety czar -- officially, assistant commissioner for food protection -- is Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer of the FDA's food division, who oversaw last year's investigation into tainted spinach from California.

The promise of a new food-safety strategy recalls an earlier FDA effort after the Sept. 11 attacks to improve protection of food imports. The initiative ultimately was abandoned because of tight federal budgets and a lack of official will.

Currently, the FDA inspects only about 1 percent of food imports under its jurisdiction, which includes bulk ingredients, fresh produce and many grocery items. In addition to stepping up the focus on food imports, the new safety plan also will address problems in domestic production, such as the E. coli outbreak in spinach.

Consumer advocates are skeptical that creating a safety czar and a new food strategy will make much difference without substantial new funding and stronger enforcement powers for the FDA. For example, the agency cannot require foreign producers to adhere to U.S. food-safety standards.

Meanwhile, a former FDA commissioner pronounced the food safety system "broken," and Democrats in Congress moved Tuesday to authorize federal regulators to monitor food imports more closely.

Imported pet-food ingredients contaminated with melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, are believed to have killed at least 1,950 cats and 2,200 dogs, according to consumer reports submitted to the FDA. Veterinary experts say the toll could be as high as 7,000. More than 150 brands of pet food have been recalled.

Some of the tainted protein concentrate in the pet food also found its way into commercial animal feed for hogs and chickens destined for human consumption.

"The real issue is not melamine, but the fact that this problem exposes such a huge gap in consumer protection," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It's not this event, but the next event that people should be concerned about."

Critics of the government's food-safety system received unequivocal support from a former FDA commissioner.

"Simply put, our food-safety system in this country is broken," Dr. David Kessler told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "The fact is that food safety has been a second-tier priority within the FDA."

Kessler said responsibility for food safety is "fragmented" among three FDA branches. It also is divided between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture: The USDA takes responsibility for meat and poultry, and the FDA for most other foods. Traditionally, the USDA has had a bigger budget and more expansive enforcement authority.

Prominent Democrats on Capitol Hill are seeking broader powers and more funding for the FDA.

In the first of what is expected to be a series of proposed fixes, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., on Tuesday introduced legislation that would give the FDA the power to order mandatory recalls of adulterated foods, establish an early-warning and notification system for tainted human or pet food, and allow fines for companies that don't promptly report contaminated products.

Durbin, the Senate's second-ranking Democrat, separately has asked for a $183 million increase next year in the FDA's food-safety budget, bringing it to $650 million.

The pet-food investigation has revealed intricacies of the nation's food production system, and the extent to which imported ingredients have become an integral part of it. Chilean grapes and English cheeses are readily identifiable on store shelves, but such ingredients as wheat gluten from China are invisible to consumers. It turns out they are also difficult for regulators to track.

Acheson, the new food-safety czar, said the principal goal of the new food-safety strategy will be to enable the FDA to prevent crises instead of reacting to them.