— OPINION — Recently, the Government Accountability Office issued a report calling for a unified food safety strategy. There aren’t too many topics more important for a nation than its ability to provide its citizens with access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food. To do that efficiently and effectively,… Continue Reading Government Agencies, Opinion & Contributed Articles, Frank Yiannas, GAO report, Government Accountability Office Food Safety News
— OPINION —
Recently, the Government Accountability Office issued a report calling for a unified food safety strategy.
There aren’t too many topics more important for a nation than its ability to provide its citizens with access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food. To do that efficiently and effectively, while being good stewards of taxpayers’ dollars, things must change.
This past year, there has been an almost weekly drumbeat of foodborne outbreaks and recalls underscoring the need to strengthen our national food safety efforts to further protect consumers, food producers, and our economy.
At the start of a new Presidential Administration, there is a once in a generation opportunity to establish a more modern, future-looking, and prevention-based National Food Safety Strategy.
The need for better public health outcomes
Despite the fact that Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2010, we spend as a nation nearly $2.8 billion dollars of taxpayer money annually on food safety efforts between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Food and Drug Administration, food safety-related public health outcomes have not changed much during the past two decades.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence (confirmed cases per 100,000 population) of many foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, Shiga Toxin Producing E coli (STEC), Campylobacter, & Listeria) have not changed much in our country and, in some cases, increased during the past 20 years.
Trust in governments food safety efforts at an all-time low
Moreover, according to a recent survey conducted by Gallup, trust in the federal government’s ability to oversee food safety is at an all-time low. In that survey, concerningly, slightly over half of Americans (53 percent) report avoiding buying certain brands or types of food because of a recall or advisory. That is an alarming high figure. Our goal as a nation should be for consumers to buy their desired food products without worrying about their safety. Food safety is first about human safety and public health, but it’s also about consumer trust.
The cost of foodborne illnesses
While the primary cost of foodborne illnesses is first and foremost a human one, with illnesses, hospitalizations, suffering, and in some cases even deaths, there’s a financial cost too. Per a study conducted by the USDA, in 2018 dollars, the national economic burden due to lapses in food safety was estimated to be approximately was about $18 billion, because of issues such as lost wages, medical expenditures, and mortality. This cost would be dramatically higher in 2024 dollars.
Economic toll of food recalls
The disruption to the food system in the way of food recalls is costly too. For every recall executed, food companies incur significant costs, including retrieving and disposing of the affected products, legal fees, and lost revenue. And while the cost of a recall can vary, one study suggested that the average cost of a recall to be approximately $10 million in direct costs, in addition to brand damage and lost sales, according to a joint industry study by the Food Marketing Institute and the Grocery Manufacturers Association.
The current state
Today, the food safety regulatory system in the United States is a patchwork of multiple federal, state, and local agencies working to ensure food safety, sometimes with duplication of effort and not as coordinated as it should be.
At the federal level, food safety rests primarily with USDA and the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of all domestic and imported foods except meat and poultry. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) regulates meat, poultry, some egg products and catfish.
But it’s more than just the USDA and FDA. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified up to 15 federal agencies, collectively, responsible for ensuring the safety of food produced and sold in the United States and up to 30 different laws, adding complexity and cost to food production, often without a proven, favorable cost-benefit ratio to consumers and the nation.
To be clear, it’s more than just about what agency inspects what foods. More importantly, it’s about how do we take a more modern, fiscally responsible, risk-based, and data-driven approach to how we regulate the safety of our food supply. For example, USDA operates on a continuous system with each animal being inspected before and after harvest with DVM oversight. The FDA’s food inspection oversight model requires that high risk food facilities be inspected once every 3 years and non-high-risk facilities once every 5 years. Moreover, most of FDA’s food inspections are done by state officials on behalf of the FDA under contract with the agency.
In addition, the regulation of food has evolved, beyond microbiological hazards, into more complex questions of chemicals hazards and additives, nutrition, labeling, claims regarding health impacts, and a better understanding of the health effects of ultra processed foods.
The way forward
Modern times require more modern food safety approaches.
In March of 2017, during President Trump’s first term, he issued Executive Order (EO) 13781, entitled “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch.” It included a proposal to consolidate FSIS and FDA’s food safety functions into a single “Federal Food Safety Agency.”
Such an effort would address a “fragmented and illogical division of federal oversight” and would “merge the thousands of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees between the FSIS and the FDA and their approximate $2.8 billion, collective, annual budget into a Single Food Safety Agency.”
A proposed first step – a White House Task Force
Establishing a single food agency has had previous support by the GAO, the National Academies of Sciences, past presidents (including President Trump), and Congressional leaders. It’s also been supported by a myriad of studies and reports. However, it’s clear, some will resist such a change.
As a first step, the President could announce the creation of a new White House Food Safety Task Force to review the string of foodborne outbreaks and recalls that have occurred recently and to develop recommendations on what the government can and should do about it to include proposals that consider establishing a more Unified, National Food Safety Strategy and/or a Single Food Safety Agency.
There hasn’t been a White House Task Force on Food Safety since the Jack-in-the Box outbreak in 1992. Moreover, there are natural connections to such an effort with the recently announced MAHA and DOGE efforts.
trategA newly formed White House Task Force on Food Safety could have Executive Sponsors, such as the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of HHS. The Taskforce itself could contain a select number of seats made up of the best thinkers in food safety from both the public and private sector, including state representatives, with a requirement for a Recommendation Report to be issued back to the Administration within a reasonable time period.
It’s time for the U.S. to make the hard decision, put aside turf or political differences, and prioritize public health by setting a plan in motion to migrate towards a more modern, forward-looking, prevention-based, national food safety strategy. Consumers nationwide, taxpayers, and the regulated industry deserve this.
About the author: Frank Yiannas served as Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response at the FDA from 2018 to 2022.
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