联邦食品安全617888九五至尊娱乐家和检查员之声

不安全的食品会导致疾病和死亡, and disproportionately harms the most vulnerable members of society. While Americans are fortunate to enjoy a food supply among the safest in the world, 还有很大的改进空间. 几乎一个月都没有召回受污染的食品.

To evaluate how well the government uses science to protect the food supply, 忧思617888九五至尊娱乐家联盟(UCS), 与爱荷华州立大学的研究人员合作, 向近8人发送了一份包含44个问题的调查问卷,美国食品药品监督管理局和美国食品药品监督管理局的000名食品安全雇员.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which together oversee our food system. 超过1700名员工做出了回应.

The results reveal a food safety system where special interests and public officials all too often inhibit the ability of government scientists and inspectors to protect the food supply.

The August 2010 recall of shell eggs due to Salmonella contamination, 以及2006年疾病爆发的原因 大肠杆菌 in spinach, has brought the topic of food safety into the public spotlight. Roughly 76 million Americans still suffer from foodborne illnesses each year.

虽然这些疾病中的许多都是轻微的, 结果是超过300个,000人住院，约5,每年有1000人死亡(Mead等). 1999). 最近的一次 study by a former 食物 and Drug Administration (FDA) economist puts the total pricetag of foodborne illness related to produce in the United States at $152 billion annually (Scharf 2010).

Because of globalization and the complexity of our food supply chain, foodborne disease outbreaks today are more widespread and difficult to isolate than in the past. 食物 policy experts agree that the market cannot regulate itself. 一些食品生产商将利润置于公众健康之上, and consumers typically do not have the ability to identify contaminated food by sight or smell.

Reforms aimed at restoring scientific integrity are needed to combat the political and corporate interference at the FDA and USDA. The laws governing the system badly need to be updated to meet twenty-first-century challenges.

Congress should give the FDA and USDA the authority to mandate food recalls, establish a science-based system for detecting harmful pathogens in the food supply, require food manufacturers to disclose more information to the government, 加强政府对食品进口的监督. Congress also should provide adequate resources to more effectively police the food supply. Only then can the frequency and scale of disease outbreaks decline.