UMass Professor Julie Caswell Says FDA Needs Risk-Based Approach to Food Safety to Help Prevent Foodborne Illness
June 8, 2010
| Contact: | Patrick J. Callahan 413/545-0444 |
AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst food safety expert Julie A. Caswell says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs to implement a risk-based approach to food safety using data and expertise to pinpoint where in the production, distribution and handling chains of food there is the greatest potential for contamination and other problems.
Caswell, who chairs the UMass Amherst department of resource economics, served on a committee from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council that released a report on FDA effectiveness today.
The report says the FDA’s ability to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness is hampered by impediments to efficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. It concludes the FDA should be able to direct appropriate amounts of its resources and attention to high-risk areas and increase the chances of catching problems before they turn into widespread outbreaks.
Caswell contributed her expertise on the economics of producing safe food, the incentives companies have to produce it, and how regulatory programs can work most effectively to reinforce those incentives and assure food safety. “The committee report recommends that the FDA adopt a risk-based system—what that means is that the agency systematically plans, collects data on food risks and other factors of concern, selects interventions to improve food safety based on their effectiveness, and continuously evaluates whether the system is delivering improved public health,” she says.
Overall, the report offers FDA a blueprint for developing a risk-based model. It also outlines several organizational steps the agency should take to improve the efficiency of its many food safety activities, such as increasing coordination with state and other federal agencies that share responsibility for protecting the nation’s food supply. In addition, the report says Congress should consider amending the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to explicitly provide the authority FDA needs to fulfill its food safety mission.
“As recent illnesses traced to produce underscore, foodborne diseases cause significant suffering, so it’s imperative that our food safety system functions effectively at all levels,” says committee chair Robert Wallace, professor, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City. He says FDA uses some risk assessment and management tactics, but that is often reactive and lacks a systematic focus on prevention.
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