The Food and Drug Administration Essay Example

Can we trust our Government, when it comes to our diets? In the past, the Government has been held responsible for various food toxins, outbreaks, and, recalls which have resulted in tremendous death tolls and economic industry loss. The keyword here is past, however, as technology and new laws have been set in place to move towards a new direction. Specifically, this paper will evaluate the Federal Food and Drug Administration although there are other organizations at work this is one of the biggest regulatory Government groups that overlook food productions within the United States. Despite Governments, past failures on food and safety, reassessment of judgment should be in order following improvements and revaluations in the system. 

The Federal Food and Drug Administrations’ duties consist of regulating ingredients in foods and drugs and announcing recalls. Focusing on recalls, it is the Federal Food and Drug Administrations’ responsibility to initially identify a possible threat within a company. Under the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act If a company is not meeting a certain standard then the Federal Food and Drug Administration informs the company and asks for them to voluntarily recall their questioned product or products. If the company does not comply then the Federal Food and Drug Administration has the right to order said company to stop distribution and alert their supply chains. Then the company is offered a hearing of which after, results in either a recall or a continuation of distribution. One of the deadliest recalls was back in 2011. “outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes bacteria associated with cantaloupes grown in Colorado, During this outbreak, CDC reported a total of 146 cases in 28 states, including 30 deaths and one miscarriage,” (“Food Safety FDA’s Food Advisory ” 4).  Before letting fear guide your judgment it is important to understand and analyze the situation fully. This was in 2011 before the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act meaning that the FDA did not have the power to recall the infected cantaloupes. Furthermore (Booth and Brown 11). reveals that “What cantaloupe buyers did not know in 2011 was that the Jensen family was changing the way it worked with hopes of reaching a higher level in agribusiness. The Jensen brothers had planted enough orange melon to supply dozens of states with three hundred thousand cases. They’d bought a washing and sorting machine able to handle a high volume of produce during the compressed packing season and to answer a private auditor’s worries about dirty fruit. The used machine had proven itself to be a workhorse with the farm produce it was designed for potatoes. The Jensens switched the machine from raw potatoes, which are covered in dirt but always cooked at high heat before eating, to cantaloupes, rarely cleaned and eaten raw.” By simply cleaning cantaloupes where potatoes had previously been the Jensen’s produce had become contaminated, becoming an undercover danger in food safety shipped throughout the country. In this particular situation, it’s reported that nobody was aware the cantaloupes carried Listeria bacteria until it was too late. The Jensen family can be held accountable for this incident as they cross-contaminated products and did not follow proper food safety. The government should not be held to a large degree responsible here as they took action and recalled the cantaloupes once it was revealed they were causing people to become sick. Furthermore, after this tragedy laws were passed to further regulate food and improve for possible future outbreaks as well. To this day, more laws continue to emerge as distribution and variety in our foods expand. For example in 2011 the FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act was passed, “giving the FDA mandatory recall authority,” and, “gives extra oversight of imported food, and more power to write guidelines for farmers on the best ways to grow food,” (Booth and Brown 12). And in 2012, the Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act (FDASIA) was passed which, “Expands FDA authorities to collect user fees from industry to fund reviews of innovator drugs, medical devices, generic drugs, and biosimilar biological products; promotes innovation to speed patient access to safe and effective products; increases stakeholder involvement in FDA processes, and enhances the safety of the drug supply chain,” (“Milestones in U.S. Food and Drug Law”). Along with responding and conforming to change well, the FDA has eliminated a lot of harmful ingredients producers have snuck in throughout the years.

The food industry has been steadily booming with thousands of new foods coming into markets and people's kitchens. The FDA has combatted foods specific components both old and new, “FDA established three “Concern Levels” (1, 2, and 3 with 3 being the most significant concern) for direct additives and color additives and developed recommended minimum toxicity tests for each level. The Concern Levels are based on a combination of estimated exposure and a prediction of the toxicity based on structural similarity to chemical with known hazards,” (Neltner, intro). This system also known as LOC for short allows for organization. In addition a category of foods established as GRAS was established as, “substances generally recognized, by qualified experts trained in safety assessment, as having been shown through scientific procedures to be safe under a given condition of use,” (Eduardo). Furthermore by law GRAS additives are not allowed to be in food without FDAs evidence that they are safe for consumption. More measurements of safety from the Government can be observed as follows, “Congress required affirmative determinations and set stringent standards for safety, acknowledging that the health effects of chemical additives are often hidden or take years to show up. These standards aim to protect the public as well as to encourage innovation and build public confidence in the safety of the food supply,” (Neltner intro). This represents how not only the immediate short-term effects are considered but also the long-lasting effects on society's health. This statement also can be connected to the threats of carcinogens. If an additive is linked to causing cancer when ingested then it is labeled as unsafe as this qualifies under Congress as a long-term issue. Examples of banned additives include synthetically-derived benzophenone, ethyl acrylate, eugenyl methyl ether (methyl eugenol), myrcene, pulegone, and pyridine. These six additives are all categorized as synthetic flavoring substances and enhancers. They became regulated out of the U.S food system when data was presented by multiple government-funded organizations like the Breast Cancer Fund and Center for Science in the Public Interest after animal laboratory experiments concluded the additives caused cancer. Overall this regulation prevented millions from developing cancer from these additives. Hence, the Government does a good job of taking control when necessary evidence is obtained. 

The Federal Food and Drug Administration or FDA for short has an immense level of responsibility and accountability over people’s dietary safety when it comes to toxins and recalls. When compared to the past it is predicted, “Nearly fifty million Americans will get food poisoning this year. That’s one in six people who will get sick from something they ate. More than one hundred thousand will go to the hospital; three thousand will die,” (Booth and Brown 11).