Food-Safety Failure: Numbers

It's not news that the nation's food-safety system is broken. From preventing disease outbreaks to tracking them when they occur, the system is full of holes, leading not only to death and illness but also to immense financial costs.

But two new reports—one from the government, one from a health-advocacy organization—put some disturbing numbers to the problem.

For instance, a test of the system that traces disease outbreaks found that just five out of 40 foods tested could be followed all the way through the supply chain. That comes from the Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General's office, which also found that, in four cases—10 percent—none of the facilities that handle the foods could be identified. The food could have come from a rat-feces-and-salmonella-infested hell pit just as easily as from a clean, well-managed facility—there was no way of telling.

The inspector general also found that a quarter of managers of food companies were entirely unaware of the record keeping requirements they are supposed to follow.

Meanwhile, the Trust for America's Health, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, issued a report calling for a complete overhaul of the system. Food-safety failures cost about $44 billion annually in medical care and lost productivity, according to the report. The cost of doubling funding for the FDA's food program—to a little over $1 billion annually—pales in comparison.

The Trust also joined the chorus of people calling for the FDA to be split in two, with one agency responsible for regulating food (perhaps as part of HHS) and the other responsible for drugs and medical devices. That might take a while, though, so the Trust recommends putting a high-level FDA official in charge of food safety as more sweeping reform makes its way through Congress.

Incredibly, the report states, there "is no single official at FDA whose full-time job is food safety and who has line authority over all elements of FDA’s food-safety program."