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FDA Budget Request 'Falls Short'

Grocers want stepped-up government inspections of food

February 7, 2008

Food Safety • Salmonella Scare Prompts Dairy Recall • Most Consumers Lack Confidence In Food Safety, Survey Says • House Committee Unanimously Passes Food Safety Bill • Food Safety Bill Aired In House • House Committee Moves Forward On Food Safety Legislation • Illinois Meat Packer Recalls 95,898 Pounds Of Beef • Alfalfa Sprouts Linked to Salmonella • Food Safety Results Level Off • Sprouts Recalled Due To Possible Listeria • FDA Warns About Listeria in Salmon • Food Industry Accused of Big Tobacco's Bad Habits • FDA Closes Tortilla Plant • Surface Water May Be Source Of Salmonella • Key Senator Blasts FDA Over Food Safety > • FDA Rolls Out Food Safety Plan • Brits Get Treats, Yanks Get Tricks From Food Companies • Hartz Recalls Rawhide Chips After Possible Salmonella Contamination • Vermont Firm Recalls Possibly-Tainted Ground Beef • Beef Sent to Puerto Rico May Be Contaminated with E. coli • Technology Offers Revolution in Food Safety Testing • Chinese Gorillas Fall Ill as Melamine Scandal Widens • Alfalfa Sprouts Recalled in Salmonella Outbreak • CDC Gives "All Clear" On Salmonella Outbreak • One Death Reported in Oklahoma E. coli Outbreak • Feds Approve Irradiation of Spinach, Lettuce • FDA Issues Warning About Frozen Seafood • Whole Foods Extends Beef Recall • Whole Foods Recalls Fresh Ground Beef • Six New E. coli Cases Reported In Massachusetts --- • More ...

When the Bush Administration unveiled its proposed budget this week, consumer groups hoping to see a major boost in funding for federal food inspection programs were disappointed.

The spending blueprint would bump the FDA's food safety budget up 6.8 percent to $662 million.

Consumer groups don't think that's nearly enough, and neither, apparently, does the food industry.

"The President's proposal to increase FDA food-related spending by $32 million does little more than cover the cost of inflation and falls short of what is ultimately needed to make certain FDA has the tools it needs to get the job done," said Cal Dooley, President and CEO of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Dooley says the food industry has made a number of its own investments in food safety to try to meet the challenges of today's evolving global market. Now, he says, the government has to do its part.

The FDA, which has responsibility for inspecting $1.5 trillion of goods, has been under intense pressure for an increasing number of food safety recalls, that culminated last year in high profile recalls of products ranging salmonella-tainted U.S.-made peanut butter to contaminated pet-food ingredients from China.

In December Dooley and other industry representatives joined with a coalition of consumer groups to call for massive spending increases on the FDA's food safety programs, something the agencies own science board says is needed.

House Democrats say they will act on the Science Board's recommendations and give the agency more money than it has asked for.

Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, (D-CA and Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) have written to the FDA's science advisory board subcommittee on science and technology and asked for a budget figure more in line with needs.

"We are deeply concerned that the budget submitted by the president is grossly inadequate to meet the many challenges at FDA as identified by the Science Board," they wrote. "It barely covers the cost of inflation and continues the trend of the inadequate budgets of previous years that have led to the current crisis at the agency."

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