Recent Peanut Butter Scare a Reason to Rethink the FDA

by Amy McDaniel, Posted Jan 30th 2009 @ 12:01PM

empty peanut product shelves with recall sticker

Let's play the old "Which Item Doesn't Belong" game:

A. Greens and cornbread.
B. Penn and Teller.
C. Food and drugs.

If you picked C, reasoning that the pairs in A and B go together swimmingly while food and drugs don't at all, then you and I and Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro are all on the same page. According to a New York Times editorial focused on the current peanut product salmonella crisis, Rep. DeLauro has proposed that food and drugs have no business being united under one umbrella agency.

This idea is not even close to new; I remember hearing it from food scientists a couple years ago. This is the first time I've seen it mentioned in a major news publication, though. Here's hoping the proposal will gain momentum. Not only is the science of regulating food versus approving and regulating medication almost totally separate, but also the drug part of the agency hogs all the resources and, as the NYT points out, all the clout. Compared to crazy side effects and Viagra and cures for debilitating disease, routine checks of food processing facilities is unsexy to say the least. But it is every bit as important, affecting, as it does, everybody.

Sure, we can all forgo our daily Luna bar fix for a bit, but what if a bacon recall is next?

Filed Under: Science, Health & Medical, Ingredients
Tags: america, nuts, seeds