FDA Safety Tests Drop

Another casualty of the Republican led administration, your food supply. FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION | Agency conducts far fewer inspections Food safety checks slashed An analysis of records shows a drop in oversight at a time of several high-profile product recalls. By ANDREW BRIDGES and SETH BORENSTEIN The Associated Press WASHINGTON | The federal agency charged with warning people about tainted spinach and contaminated peanut butter is conducting just half the food safety inspections it did three years ago. The cuts by the Food and Drug Administration come despite a barrage of high-profile food recalls. “We have a food safety crisis on the horizon,” said Michael Doyle, the director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia. Between 2003 and 2006, FDA food safety inspections dropped 47 percent, according to an analysis of federal records by The Associated Press. That is not all that is dropping at the agency in terms of food safety. The analysis also showed: •FDA field offices have 12 percent fewer employees who concentrate on food issues. •Safety tests for U.S.-produced food have dropped nearly 75 percent, from 9,748 in 2003 to 2,455 last year. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FDA, at the urging of Congress, increased the number of food inspectors and inspections amid fears that the country’s food system was vulnerable to terrorists. Inspectors and inspections spiked in 2003, but both have since fallen enough to erase the gains. More At The Kansas City Star