In the latest issue of the Global Food Safety Monitor, IATP's Steve Suppan explores food companies' role in setting food safety rules, at both the national and international levels. The recent massive recall of salmonella-contaminated peanut paste from the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) plant in Georgia illustrates the challenge. PCA's own private laboratories had detected salmonella 12 times in 2007-2008. But PCA is not required under the law to report contamination to the Food and Drug Administration. In fact, this system of corporate self-regulation is not only the basis for the U.S. food safety rules, but is also being pushed at the global level by industry groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
Most of the current debate in the U.S. is about how to best re-organize federal agencies in charge of food safety, including a new bill introduced by Senator Richard Durbin that has the support of much of the food industry. But as Steve writes, "Whether a new food safety agency is located within the FDA or USDA, or is an independent agency, will be less important than whether the government is willing to ensure that it, and not the regulated industry, controls food safety management."
Read the full issue.
