FDA presses security measures to protect food supply

By Philip Brasher

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — To protect the food supply, America’s farms, restaurants and supermarkets should consider criminal background checks on employees, take care to safeguard water supplies and keep a closer eye on the salad bar, the government says.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines were put together in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, with advice from the food industry. Companies are not required to follow them.

"These are essentially best practices that everybody can look at and say, ‘Am I doing as much as I can be doing?’ " said Joseph Levitt, the FDA’s food safety chief.

The only known terrorist attack on U.S. food occurred in 1984 when followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh contaminated salad bars at 10 restaurants in The Dalles, Ore., with salmonella bacteria, sickening about 750 people.

Experts say fresh produce may be the food most vulnerable to tampering because it is often eaten raw and is subject to little government inspection.

FDA is issuing similar guidelines for importers that include detailed suggestions for transporting and storing food.

Both versions of the guidelines are being published today in the Federal Register.

Gene Grabowski, a spokesman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, said that most large companies have been implementing 75 percent of the guidelines, with smaller companies following them a little less, depending on what business they are in and where they are located.

Companies that import fruits and vegetables from Mexico, a major source of produce in U.S. stores, say they’re already following security measures that the Customs Service recommends to deter food shipments from being used for drug smuggling.

Background checks make sense for truck drivers, who have control of food during shipment, but not for farm workers, said Lee Frankel, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, an importers group.

Consumer advocates say that voluntary measures can’t protect the food supply, and there’s a renewed push in Congress to consolidate the government’s inspection services to give the FDA and Agriculture Department more legal authority.

"Voluntary guidelines are not enough," said Jennifer Brower, a policy analyst with the Rand Corp. think tank. "The FDA doesn’t have the power … and they don’t have the resources and inspectors to do what they need to do."

Neither the FDA nor the Agriculture Department has the power to force companies to recall tainted products.

Congress recently approved the hiring of 600 additional food inspectors at the FDA, which would allow the agency to double the number of people it has checking imported products. The agency currently inspects about 1 percent of imported food.