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Policy

GAO Pushes For Food Safety Details

June 23, 2008 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 86, Issue 25

FDA has provided inadequate details on the resources needed to implement its Food Protection Plan and has not specified timelines for implementing the plan's strategies, according to a Government Accountability Office report (GAO-08-909T) released on June 12. FDA first released its food safety plan in November 2007. "We continue to have concerns about FDA's lack of specificity on the necessary resources and strategies to fully implement the plan," GAO's Lisa Shames, director of natural resources and environment, testified at a June 12 hearing before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce. GAO estimates that it would cost about $524 million for one-time inspections of all of the roughly 65,500 U.S. food companies regulated by FDA and about $3.16 billion to inspect all registered foreign facilities. FDA expects to spend a total of about $90 million over fiscal years 2008 and 2009 to implement its Food Protection Plan. Since 2004, GAO has made several recommendations to help FDA improve its monitoring and enforcement processes, but the agency says FDA has implemented only a few. In addition, the report notes, FDA has fallen behind schedule in keeping the public informed of its progress on implementing the Food Protection Plan.

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