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Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama urged a "complete review" of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after the agency failed to prevent contamination of peanut butter linked to deaths, illnesses and one of the largest U.S. food recalls.
The FDA has "not been able to catch some of these things as quickly as I expect them to," and "we're going to be doing a complete review of FDA operations," the president said in an interview broadcast today on NBC's Today show.
A salmonella outbreak tied to a peanut butter maker, closely held Peanut Corp. of America, has sickened 550 people and killed eight, U.S. health officials said today. The FDA said the company shipped peanut butter products after tests in 2007 and 2008 showed salmonella was present. The U.S. opened a criminal investigation of the company, the FDA said on Jan. 30.
The FDA has faced criticism from lawmakers, led by Representative Bart Stupak, a Democrat from Michigan, who say the agency hasn't done enough to ensure the safety of food and drugs. Obama hoped to name someone "in the next few days" to run the FDA, administration spokesman Robert Gibbs said Jan. 30.
"At a bare minimum, we should be able to count on our government keeping our kids safe when they eat peanut butter," said Obama, a Democrat. "That's what Sasha eats for lunch," he said, referring to his 7-year-old daughter.
Products Recalled
More than 800 peanut products have been recalled. The outbreak, traced to Peanut Corp.'s Blakely, Georgia, plant, doesn't affect supermarket peanut butter brands. Peanut Corp.'s peanut butter and paste are used by food manufacturers in products such as cookies, crackers and cereal, according to the FDA.
Peanut Corp., based in Lynchburg, Virginia, recalled all peanut products made since January 2007 at its Blakely plant, FDA officials said Jan. 28. The factory has been identified as the source of the outbreak of salmonella typhimurium that began in September and has sickened people in 43 states and Canada, the agency has said.
Consumers Union, the Yonkers, New York-based group that publishes Consumer Reports magazine, applauded Obama's call for an FDA review and said food producers should be inspected annually. The Georgia plant was inspected last year by state regulators, under contract with the FDA, and Consumers Union says the oversight was inadequate.
Food Inspections
The FDA, and states the agency contracts with, inspected about 14,600 U.S. food production operations out of about 65,500 in fiscal 2007, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
"The FDA is supposed to be a watchdog for consumers, and for too long, this agency has been coming up short," said Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives for Consumers Union, in a statement.
Michael Herndon, an FDA spokesman, declined to comment on the Consumers Union statement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=azp7R_BLJsTc&refer=home
