Editorial: Who inspected that sandwich?

Thursday, March 8, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

Instances of food poisoning that generate national news coverage are relatively rare in the United States, maybe one or two a year.

The most recent ones include illnesses and at least three deaths caused last year by California-grown spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria, and illnesses caused by salmonella bacteria that led to the recall last month of all Peter Pan peanut butter made at a Georgia plant.

The relative rarity of such high-profile cases, however, is deceiving. For a report about how the federal government inspects food, Newhouse News Service gathered statistics from the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It learned that each year about 76 million people in the United States come down with some type of food-borne illness. Of those, about 325,000 people require hospitalization and 5,000 die.

The news service pointed to a recent study by the congressional Government Accountability Office, which found that the federal food inspection system is so fragmented that consistent and competent oversight is endangered.

For example, open-faced sandwiches are regulated by the Agriculture Department. Regular sandwiches, served with two slices of bread, are overseen by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA regulates eggs in their shells. Processed egg products are regulated by the Agriculture Department. And so it goes, the news service reported, in the "byzantine world of federal food safety."

The story quoted from congressional testimony given by one of the authors of the GAO report. Speaking of the current system, he said, "There is no doubt ... that we need to streamline, simplify, consolidate ..."

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the story reported, has introduced legislation that would do just that. Under her bill, instead of food inspections and regulations being the responsibility of the FDA, the Agriculture Department and 13 other federal agencies, a new federal agency would be created with a single responsibility - ensuring the safety of food.

Our view is that DeLauro is on the right track. Five-thousand people dying of food-borne illnesses each year, and 76 million people being sickened, is too much. Change is necessary.