Posted by Steve Hedges at 4:30 pm CDT
Amid a rising storm of concern over the safety of imported food, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it was establishing a new position, the assistant commissioner for food safety, to ensure more protection for consumers.
The post, which will be immediately filled by the FDA’s chief food safety medical officer, David Acheson, comes after the FDA’s own finding that pet food and livestock feed ingredients imported from China may have been tainted with melamine, a nitrogen rich chemical that is used in plastics.
In his new job, Acheson will work with other FDA offices and “coordinate FDA's food safety and defense assignments and commitments,” the agency said in a statement.
Consumer and Congressional critics of the FDA’s food safety records are certain to condemn the agency’s decision as too little, too late, and they will demand that more money be spent to expand the FDA’s force of 640 food safety inspectors. That number, the FDA notes, has risen by 14 percent since 2001.
ChemNutra, Inc, the U.S. company that imported some of the wheat gluten, contends that its Chinese supplier added the melamine to artificially boost the measurable protein in the gluten. A higher protein content brings a higher price for the gluten.
While it is unclear how melamine affects humans if ingested, thousands of pets have fallen ill and scores have died by eating pet food that included the wheat gluten, according to the FDA. The agency’s investigation has also found that surplus pet food was used as hog feed, and that at least 6,000 hogs may have eaten the melamine contaminated food.
While those 6,000 hogs will be destroyed, at least 45 people in California have already eaten pork from slaughtered hogs that were fed the melamine-laced feed, state officials there said.
The FDA currently inspects just one percent of all food imported into the U.S. That trade has increased substantially over the last few years. In 2003, the FDA reports, there were slightly more than 3 million food imports. Last year, the figure jumped to 16 million.
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Comments
Ha!
Everytime Bush screws something up, he tries to appoint a "Czar" to take the blame.
He really needs to appoint a "Competency Czar."
Of course, that person would have to fire Bush.
Posted by: Ron | May 1, 2007 4:53 PM
Weren't the czars the incompetent rulers of Russia who were overthrown by the people there?
Posted by: Tom O | May 1, 2007 5:25 PM
Dr. Acheson is no more than a spokes person with a title.
Posted by: jerri | May 1, 2007 5:26 PM
Uh, just a thought. Why not have the federal agency that is responsible for food safety BE responsible for food safety. Unless you want a commission to think about it.
Say, could we contract this out to Halliburton?
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | May 1, 2007 6:05 PM
The problem isn't a czar. The problem is an FDA more concerned about the food industries profits over the integrity & the safety of the food Americans eat. This is how Bush wants it & this is what Americans are stuck with on their plate.
Posted by: RomanB | May 1, 2007 10:28 PM
Forget the FDA appointing a food safety Czar...what we need is a safety driving Czar for the Kennedy's.
....Or a "Competence Czar" to find out why B.J.Clinton failed to protect this country at home and abroad during the 90's,which led us to war after 9/11!
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | May 1, 2007 11:49 PM
Every time there is a problem with this administration, they make government even bigger by adding another position which will need a deputy, both will need secretaries, who will need clerks, who will need office managers and on and on...that's how all the jobs are being created!
Posted by: lochnessmonster | May 2, 2007 6:34 AM
[quote]
....Or a "Competence Czar" to find out why B.J.Clinton failed to protect this country at home and abroad during the 90's,which led us to war after 9/11!
Paulo
Posted by: Paulo | May 1, 2007 11:49:09 PM
[/quote]
When will we get a "Competence Czar" who will fire Dubya for lying us into a war that has killed over 3300 Americans so far? Or lost over $12 Billion in cash over in Iraq? Or allowed Halliburton to overcharge taxpayers by Billions of dollars in "cost plus" no bid contracts? Or for Dubya allowing the real mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin-Laden, to escape justice for the past 5 years? Or for the Dubya administration for allowing the bin-Ladens residing in America to fly back home while every other plane in the USA was grounded after 9/11?
Posted by: BC | May 2, 2007 8:55 AM
Yeah, but can the guy produce for me a really good crispy thin crust pizza?
Posted by: C.Morris | May 2, 2007 8:37 PM