Editorial: Food safety failures

Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 | 7:22 a.m.

In 2001 the Food and Drug Administration came up with a plan to stamp imported food that failed inspection with the words, "UNITED STATES REFUSED ENTRY."

The proposal was an attempt to prevent so-called "port shopping" by some importers who would continue to try to bring food that had failed an inspection into America. Congress added the plan to a 2002 bioterrorism law.

Nearly seven years later the FDA has yet to break out the stamps.

USA Today reported Wednesday that the plan stalled as many other food safety measures do because of a lack of political will, industry opposition and competing priorities.

An FDA official said the agency is still working on plans to implement the proposal, but has yet to determine the size of the stamp and where the stamp would go. Industry groups have made any number of objections, saying the law is too broad and would require regulators stamp food for labeling errors. The stamp, they fear, would prevent them from taking food to foreign ports, and have gone so far to suggest inspectors use ink only visible to U.S. officials under UV light.

While the FDA has failed to do its job, food imports to the United States have increased. The contaminated pet food from China that came to America earlier this year put a new emphasis on food safety, yet the FDA has been slow to act. In the meantime, unscrupulous importers are finding ways to get around the agency's inspectors.

In July investigators for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce testified that some seafood importers were sending questionable seafood by plane to Las Vegas to avoid experienced FDA inspectors at West Coast seaports.

The FDA's failures are unconscionable. Congress should demand a full accounting of the FDA's inspection program and ensure the FDA can and will do everything possible to protect the nation's food supply.