Egg Recall Exposes Gaps in Federal Oversight

The Food and Drug Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture both deny responsibility for the recent outbreak of salmonella poisonings. While the F.D.A. has traditionally been responsible for monitoring egg safety after processing, the F.D.A. states the violations were “outside its purview”. The United States Department of Agriculture, while responsible for egg safety at processing facilities, stated that they have never had an inspector dedicated to food safety at the farms. The U.S.D.A. also stated that their agencies have no involvement in food safety regulations involving shelled eggs. F.D.A. Commissioner Margaret Hamburg announced that new rules, giving the F.D.A. authority to test eggs for salmonella would have “very likely” enabled the F.D.A. to know about the contamination before the outbreak. In the following months, Hamburg states that the F.D.A. will be conducting “hundreds” of inspections under its new authority.

This article caused me to further question whether products inspected and approved by the departments of our federal government are any safer than the road kill that we pass on the street every day. They talk about new regulations that will enable them to check for salmonella, but shouldn’t these regulations already have been in place? It seems that if the federal government had know the probable causes of salmonella poisoning for years, it’s reasonable that they should have been testing the same products for possible salmonella contamination, in order to prevent this and past outbreaks. This outbreak and the controversy over whose responsibility it is to protect the public, show the lack of accountability taken by those that are supposed to be looking out for our health and welfare, in other words our own government. This article also makes me wonder if it is not safer to buy your food supplies directly from the source, cutting out the middle man and his supposed inspections and regulations. I believe that you would receive better product and lower pricing, buying direct from a reputable source. Also, because this salmonella outbreak was caused by eggs, it makes me wonder how many people among the victims of this outbreak followed the common sense rules of egg handling, such as not eating eggs that have cracks in the shell, because there is a chance of contamination.
foxnews
Associated Press contributed to this report

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My name is Marie Thompson, I have been married for 8 years as of today, and I am the mother of a very active two year old. I am a Sociology major.