Bioterrorism expert to head Food and Drug Administration
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama, citing an existing health “hazard,” announced yesterday the creation of a special interagency panel on food safety, arguing that the status quo was “unacceptable.” He also appointed Margaret Hamburg, an expert in bioterrorism, to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency in charge of securing the nation’s food supply.
The Food Safety Working Group, chaired by the secretaries of health and human services and agriculture, will coordinate US government activities aimed at upgrading and enforcing food safety laws, the White House said.
“I expect this group to report back to me with recommendations as soon as possible,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “In the end, food safety is something I take seriously, not just as your president, but as a parent.”
The announcement followed a slew of food safety emergencies that have shaken US consumers in recent years. In 2006, tons of spinach were removed from restaurants and supermarket shelves after the discovery of samples contaminated with deadly bacteria.
Last year, a similar recall prompted by a salmonella scare affected peppers and tomatoes. Earlier this year, infected peanut products resulted in hundreds of illnesses and nine deaths around the country.
Overall, the average number of outbreaks from contaminated produce and other foods has grown to nearly 350 a year, up from 100 a year in the early 1990s, according to the White House.
“Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America have not been updated since they were written in the time of Teddy Roosevelt,” who was president at the dawn of the 20th century, Obama noted.
“It’s also because our system of inspection and enforcement is spread out so widely among so many people that it’s difficult for different parts of our government to share information, work together, and solve problems.” He also pointed out that the FDA had been underfunded and understaffed, as a result of which roughly 95 percent of food processing plants and warehouses go without inspection each year.
“That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable,” the president concluded.
He said that as FDA commissioner, Hamburg will play a key role in ensuring the safety of the nation’s food supply.
An expert in infectious diseases and bioterrorism, she served as vice president of the Nuclear Threat Initiative as well as assistant secretary for health and human services. Before moving to Washington, Hamburg worked for six years as health commissioner of New York.
Obama said the newly appointed commissioner has “not only a reputation of integrity but a record of achievement in making Americans safer and more secure.” She will be assisted in her job by Joshua Sharfstein, the current health commissioner in Baltimore, Maryland.
