Worse than we thought

Sunday, March 16, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

For seven years, U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors documented serious problems with sanitation at about half of the nation’s spinach packaging facilities, but they did virtually nothing about it, a House committee has reported.

The FDA acknowledged its poor performance in the aftermath of a 2006 E. coli outbreak in bagged spinach that sickened 200 people and has been connected to three deaths. It was one of 20 serious outbreaks that have been linked to lettuce or spinach since 1995, The New York Times reported.

A report released by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Wednesday shows that FDA inspectors visited each of 67 spinach processing facilities only once every 2 1/2 years, despite federal guidelines that call for inspections annually.

Problems noted by inspectors on those visits included workers with uncovered hair and poor hygiene, piles of litter and condensation indoors that could lead to food contamination, and facilities that were not adequately guarded against rodents.

Yet FDA inspectors did not refer any of these facilities to internal auditors for additional review, and they did not send warning letters or seek to halt production while the unsanitary conditions were addressed, the House report says.

FDA spokesman Kimberly Rawlings told the Times that the agency is asking Congress to grant it additional authority in regulating produce and other foods that have been linked to food-borne illnesses. But, she added, despite recent problems “the food supply in the U.S. continues to be one of the safest in the world.”

Although probably true, such statements do not offer much comfort or confidence to Americans who worry whether the foods they are serving their families are safe.

We support Congress’ giving the FDA the authority and money it needs to adequately do its job.

But along with that, Congress must also create some checks and balances to ensure that the FDA is using its new authority and money in the proper manner — and that means performing annual inspections when they are due and acting on all violations that inspectors find.