Nation’s food supply at risk, GAO says

WASHINGTON – The Government Accountability Office on Wednesday added food safety to its list of critically flawed federal programs, saying that splintered jurisdiction among 15 agencies has left the United States vulnerable to outbreaks of food-borne illness or, worse, a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, a senior administration official said President Bush would seek an increase of about $11 million for food safety in the fiscal 2008 budget he is scheduled to release Monday. Much of the funding would be aimed at reducing the risk from produce outbreaks, such as the E. coli-contaminated California spinach that caused three deaths and sickened more than 200 last fall.

Consumer and industry groups, however, said the increase would not stop the Food and Drug Administration’s inspection staff from continuing to shrink. The FDA’s budget has not kept pace with the rising cost of federal salaries and benefits, so the agency has had to eliminate hundreds of field inspector jobs, along with scientific and technical positions.

The GAO, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said it added food safety to its so-called “high-risk” list of federal programs because the system is out-of-date, often unscientific, and lacks accountability.

The FDA and the Agriculture Department split most of the responsibility for food safety, with the USDA overseeing meat, poultry and processed egg products and the FDA just about everything else. But each operates under a different set of laws.

Bush administration officials disputed the conclusion that the system is broken, pointing to research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing a decline in the incidence of food-borne illness since the late 1990s. But most of the progress occurred before 2005, the statistics indicate, and the CDC has concluded that further measures are needed.