FDA Strengthen States' Food Safety Programs

Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a program that aims to increase the efficacy and efficiency of state programs that oversee facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food under FDA's jurisdiction.

Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. The FDA is responsible for approximately 80 % of the US food supply (including food for humans and animals). Meat and meat products, poultry and poultry products, eggs and eggs products, and fish and fishery products are regulated by another government agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 76 million cases of food related diseases occur each year. Also, food related diseases cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5000 death per year.

In addition to the effect on human health, food related diseases have also an effect on economics. Only in the US it was estimated (1997) that foodborne diseases, caused by the major pathogens alone, had a cost of near to US $35 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity.

Major food related diseases include salmonellosis, campylobacteriosis, and enterohaemorrhagic infections. Other major issues are related to Naturally occurring toxins, Persistant Organic Pollutants (POPs), and Metal contaminations of foods.

According to a FDA press release, the government agency has designed The Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards which will tested, on pilot scale, in the states of New York, Oregon, and Missouri before September 30, 2007.

The idea behind The Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards is to standardize efforts of state and national regulatory programs that oversee food facilities across the country.

Currently, the great variety of regulatory programs, based on voluntary adoption, may lead to inconsistencies and inefficacies in the early detection of possible food related outbreak and human mass intoxications.