FDA, Food Safety Czar

Gee, that was quick! It was just last night I was complaining about the FDA's lack of oversight on food coming in from other countries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday created a senior position to supervise the agency's regulation of food safety.

However, not everyone is happy about the new position. Given that the FDA is one big bureaucratic nightmare, I can't blame them.

Congressional critics dubbed the new FDA position "food safety czar" and derided it as likely to be ineffective. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) on Tuesday introduced a bill, which Durbin plans to co-sponsor in the Senate, that would allow the FDA to order recalls of contaminated food, create an early-warning system for problems with human or pet food and broaden the agency's power over food labeling, importation and record-keeping. Under current rules, food manufacturers must issue recall notices.
"I think the FDA needs to do more than just create a food safety czar," DeLauro said. "This is about reshuffling the management, and I think it does little to focus the agency on its mission to protect the public health."

It would really be nice if the FDA would actually test more of the imported food. I worry that this is just creating a new level of government red tape and further burdening an understaffed and underfunded agency. If Congress wants to make this really effective, they need to take all that pork they placed in the now vetoed "We Surrender" bill and put in the FDA.