Editorial: A sickening situation

Monday, Sept. 17, 2007 | 7:13 a.m.

Despite the bacterial contamination of bagged spinach and lettuce that killed three people and sickened more than 200 last year, government regulators still have not increased farm inspections in the region where the tainted greens were grown.

A story by the Associated Press last week says that regulations governing vegetable growers in California's central Salinas Valley region are patchwork at best, relying on government inspections only once every four years and voluntary actions on the part of growers. Basically, it is the same system that was in effect when bacteria from a cattle ranch contaminated spinach and lettuce and led to last year's deadly E. coli outbreak.

The fact that bagged spinach was recalled from grocery stores last month, because it was contaminated with salmonella, illustrates again that voluntary guidelines don't work.

And these types of incidents are not new. As we noted in an April editorial, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials documented bacterial contamination at farms in the Salinas Valley as far back as 1995.

FDA officials have said they lack the money and authority to adequately inspect the nation's food supply - 80 percent of which the FDA is responsible for overseeing. On average, AP reports, federal officials inspect companies that process salad greens only once every four years.

California public health inspectors can only impose mandatory food-safety rules after an outbreak occurs, AP reports. California lawmakers considered three pieces of legislation in the past year that would have mandated such regulations. But the measures failed because legislators wanted to determine whether the voluntary approach works.

California Sen. Dean Florez, a Democrat who sponsored all three of the failed legislative proposals, told AP that growers are being allowed to play "a game of roulette with our food."

It is astonishing that even after consumers have died and hundreds of others have been sickened, regulators still rely on voluntary industry efforts to ensure that the nation's food supply is safe. This cannot be tolerated any longer. Government has a responsibility to make certain that Americans can trust that the foods they buy are safe.