FDA oversight lacking in US food facility inspections
While FDA is responsible for safeguarding the nation’s food supply, it has increasingly relied on state agencies to conduct inspections on its behalf. However, the 2009 Salmonella outbreak caused by contamination at a Peanut Corporation of America facility, inspected several times by a state agency working for the FDA, shows a degree of FDA oversight is missing, according to the recent report, Vulnerabilities in FDA’s Oversight of State Food Facility Inspections, published by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG).
Because of concerns about food facility inspections conducted by state agencies, this review and report was requested by the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA and related agencies. The purpose of the review was four fold: