FDA Communications
Lack Vital Risk Assessments
Dr. David Acheson, FDA’s Associate Commissioner for Foods, made a statement during the conference on July 9, 2008, that indicates he doesn’t really understand what the complaint is with the way the FDA releases information: If we feel we have got strong enough evidence to warn consumers about a product that may be contaminated with […]
Lukewarm Indictment of Jalapenos:Solving Outbreak RequiresThinking Outside the Box
The bottom line is that the more the CDC and FDA speak, the more obvious it becomes that three months into this outbreak they do not have a rational explanation or even a reasonable theory to explain this Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The latest announcement adds more smoke than light to the outbreak: An initial epidemiologic […]
Consumer Watchdogs Ignore
Current Outbreak In Pursuit of Predetermined Agenda
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) held a press conference issuing a statement headlined as Emergency Regs Needed for Tracking Produce, Food Groups Say. The gist of their proposal is two-fold: First, they issued an “urgent plea to Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach” who is the […]
If The Industry Doesn’t Hang Together…Surely We Will All Hang Separately
The industry has pretty much come to the conclusion that something must be done. We simply can no longer allow situations in which the FDA causes industrywide dislocations — as it did in the spinach crisis of late-2006 and is now happening with the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak, where first the tomato industry was crushed and […]
Energy And Commerce Committee
Should Think About Commerce
In Hearings On ‘Broken’ FDA
In a little ironic twist, it is the Committee on Energy and Commerce — chaired by Representative John D. Dingell (D-MI) — and, specifically, its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations — chaired by Bart Stupak (D-MI) — that soon will hold hearings related to the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. The hearings will be “…examining the inability […]
Reality On The Border:
Businesses Suffer At Hands Of FDA
With all the controversy and confusion regarding what precisely the FDA may be doing on the US/Mexico border, we thought it best to reach out to some industry members who are dealing with the realities of what is happening. We asked Mira Slott, Pundit Investigator and Special Projects Editor, to find out more: John McClungPresident, […]
CNN Wrongly Blamed For
FDA’s Calculated Ambiguity
Over the July 4th weekend, news broke on the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak that we thought sufficiently important to give up some of our holiday and make sure we dispatched a Special Alert containing the information that the government would be doing enhanced inspection of certain items on Monday. We thought this vital to get out […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — FDA’s Tomato Safety Initiative Revisited
On June 13, 2008, in the midst of the Salmonella Saint Paul Tomato Outbreak, one reader, either prescient or with a remarkable memory, thought to scan the Pundit archives: I thought it was interesting to note the following archive article, one year ago today! FDA Begins Tomato Safety Initiative Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit, June 13, […]
Pundit’s Mailbag — Plenty of FDA Incompetence to Go Around But TheProblem Is A Matter Of Politics, Says Marion Nestle,Esteemed Food Policy Professor
One of the great joys of doing the Pundit has been the opportunity to exchange ideas with brilliant people from across the globe. Today we are honored to receive a note from Marion Nestle, a woman who can only be described as an irreplaceable national resource on public policy as it relates to food and […]
CDC Makes One Step Forward And Two Steps Back In Mapping Illnesses
It is has been said that there is no force more powerful than an idea whose time has come. So, here at the Pundit, we keep pushing good ideas and, in fact, often play a role in bringing about positive change. Just recently, for example, our piece, CDC’s Map Of Ill Persons Could Use Some […]
