The FDA, Food Safety, and related topics

This year IÕm studying food safety policy in the US.  This web page is a collection point for the things I find worth going back to.  If you have suggestions, please email them to me.  Enjoy, but, warning:  studying food safety may change the way you behave in your kitchen, in restaurants, etc. 

á        FDA and other government websites 

á        Essential FDA & related reports 

á        Book reviews & personal postings

á        Science & Food Science organizations

á        Interest Groups (some overlap w/ above)

á        news, journalism, professional publications

And here is my politics of food safety blog  

GOVERNMENT WEBSITES

á         The FDA website 

o    Recently created Office of Foods 

o    FDAÕs Science Board 

o    FDA Action Levels (how many bugs in your food, etc.—fun at parties)

o    recent consideration of rules for transport of foods, for which a notice appeared in the Federal Register 

o    Carl AndersonÕs Blog on FDA Stuff 

á         The CDCÕs Food Safety Office website

o     CDC Public Health Blog (excellent)

á         The governmentÕs Food Safety website 

á         The PresidentÕs Food Safety Working Group (stakeholders included) 

á         CongressÕ work on S 510, organized by OpenCongress.  Here is a summary from CRS.  The S. Com. on H,E,L and P had a hearing and issued the chairÕs mark in mid November of 2009.

á         CongressÕ work on HR 2749, organized by Open Congress.  Here is a summary from CRS.  

á         CongressÕ work on HR 875, organized by OpenCongress 

á         USDAÕs Food Safety Inspection Service  (FSIS)

á         The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service works to protect US agriculture. 

á          The Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Admin. works on marketing US agricultural products. 

á         The Agricultural Marketing Service runs several commodity programs. 

á        Current FSIS Recalls 

á        Current FDA Recalls 

á         The EPA did a study of whatÕs in biosolids, which many cities now give away or sell for use in gardens and on agriculture fields. 

 

The UKÕs Food Standards Agency 

SCIENCE & FOOD SCIENCE ORGANIZATIONS

á         Some of the best work on industrial chemicals, how we regulate them, and how that compares to Canada and the EU REACH system, is by Richard Denison at Environmental Defense. 

á         Barfblog, related to KSUÕs Bites project, ÒSafe Food from Farm to Fork.Ó 

á         Marion Nestle, a top food safety expert and author, has a blog with lots of useful info. 

á         The Pump Handle is a blog with many public health specialists contributingÉ. 

á         The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale has many things, including a page on taxing sugar drinksÉ 

á         The Center for Science in the Public Interest has a Food Safety Page  

á         The Kellogg Foundation has a Food and Society Policy program.  Their policy fellows have a blogÉ. 

á         The Food Safety Project, at Georgetown U.  Check their links page. 

á         Defending Science, a project from GWUs School of Public Health and Heath Services.

á         The Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia looks into many interesting topics. 

á         The Center for Foodborne Illness (research and prevention) was started by two people after someone they knew died of food poisoning.  

á         The folks at CIDRAP, U. Minn., have a good bibliography of food safety readings, a list of industry associations, a list of academic food safety centers, and more.  

á         The Food Safety Research Consortium did a project on Prioritizing Opportunities to Reduce Foodborne Risk, website still there.

á         Professor Daniel Carpenter, HarvardÕs Dept. of Government, ran The FDA Project, focusing on pharmaceutical regulation. 

FAVORITE FDA REPORTS AND RELATED ITEMS

á          See the PresidentÕs Cancer Panel Report, from May of 2010.  Here is a short commentary on it.  

á          Recent testimony on SB 510 by Commissioner Hamburg

á          The Grossman FDA Report estimates that a much bigger budget is needed than is found in the PresidentÕs proposal.  

á         FDA Science and Mission at Risk 

á         The Future of Drug Safety 

á         Key Findings from PresidentÕs Working Group on food safety

á          Federal Oversight of Food Safety (from GAOÉ note, on p. 2, the mention of points in FDA Science and Mission and Risk, and careful focus of this report—which does not touch main conclusions of FDA Science and Mission at Risk.)

á          MMWR Weekly of April 10, 2009, which tells us Òprogress toward the national health objectives has plateaued, suggesting that fundamental problems with bacterial and parasitic contamination are not being resolved.Ó

á         FSP Report, Breakdown (about lessons from a 2008 Salmonella outbreak)

INTEREST GROUPS and Interesting Political Observers

á         The Alliance for a Stronger FDA 

á         Carl AndersonÕs Blog on FDA Stuff 

á         Steven GrossmanÕs FDA MATTERS web page. 

á         Marler Clark is a leading law firm that sues companies that make people sick  They publish Food Safety News.  AND, they publish Food Poisoning Journal. 

á         The Pew Charitable Trusts have taken a position on food and produce safety  

á         The National Family Farm Coalition connects food safety with Ôfood sovereigntyÕ

á         The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition published a position paper on food safety issues. 

á         STOP (Safe Tables Our Priority) is a group originally motivated to act by the 1993 E.coli outbreaks

á         The Union of Concerned Scientists has a program on food and agriculture issues 

á         The Food Rights Network is a self-appointed watchdog on recycled sewage, leader is author of a book on the topic

á         Food and Water Watch is what it says, an interest group that tries to monitor and influence food and water issues

á          The Community Alliance for Global Justice has a Food Justice Project  

 

BOOK REVIEWS, PERSONAL POSTS

 

My mother let me eat raw hamburger. 

Unpleasant Food Safety Story

Eat Cookie Dough 

Understanding the PresidentÕs Cancer Panel Report.  

 

á         Important book: D. Michaels, Doubt is their Product, short version of argument is here. 

á         Several book reviews are posted in the book review section of Carl AndersonÕs FDA Blog

á         a web page that supported a talk at PLU. 

á         A page about our exposure to chemicals, and our response to it. 

 

NEWS, JOURNALISM, PROFESSIONAL LITERATURE

á         Ever wonder what is in Ònatural flavorsÓ?  See this excellent piece in the New Yorker by Raffi Khatchadourian.

á         excellent NYT piece on an E. coli case 

á         NYT has links to many stories on their food safety main page

á          Michael PollanÕs web page has descriptions of his books and links to many of his articles. 

á          A 2003 Mother Jones piece on John Munsell, interesting guy

á          A sign of how tough it is to get the facts:  See the International Society of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.  Check their Journal.  Wow, looks scientific.  Peer-reviewed, too.  And yetÉ. check their sponsors.  Oh, not listed, Òto be announced soonÓ?  They have been supported by tobacco, chemical, and drug companies.  Check the editor of the journal, and the Wikipedia page about him.  Hmmm, is this what science journals look like?  Thanks to David Michaels, Doubt is Their Product, pp. 53-4, for this example.  Michaels did not cite the Wikipedia page. 

á          Defending Science (see above) posted the table of contents, with links to articles, of the American Journal of Public Health Supplement on Scientific Evidence and Public Policy, Sept. 2005..

 

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