Food safety inspectors struggle with swelling volume of imports
http://www.mworld.com/m/m.w?lp=GetStory&id=3130083 [2008-7-14]
Tag : fresh chinese yam
LAREDO, Texas, Day after day, Mexican trucks line up as far as theeye can see for entry to the U.S. at the World Trade Bridge,carrying everything from raw tomatoes, broccoli and fresh basil tofrozen seafood. They also bring in salmonella, listeria, restrictedpesticides and other food poisons.
Customs and Border Protection officers take less than a minute pertruck to determine which products enter the U.S. and find their wayinto grocery stores and restaurants across North Texas. Most trucks are waved through. The avalanche of imported goods,especially food from Mexico, is too much for the limited number ofinspectors at the nation's 300 ports of entry to effectivelyscreen, critics say. And the sheer volume makes it impossible forthem to carry out their mission: protecting the U.S. food supplyand American consumers.
Concerns about the nation's food inspection system are gainingurgency, especially as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration looksat Mexico as a likely source of salmonella-tainted tomatoes thathave sickened more than 800 people in the last two months. The FDAlast month sent inspectors to three Mexican states, Jalisco,Sinaloa and Coahuila, and Florida to check farms and packingplants. The great majority of the food that crosses the southern U.S.border is safe, U.S. officials say. But a surge in imports inrecent years means that the system of border inspections is badlystrained and in urgent need of repair, the officials acknowledge.
Inspectors at the border are tasked with enforcing hundreds ofregulations from more than 40 government agencies. And just a tinypercentage of agricultural products, seafood and manufactured goodsis actually inspected, say the critics. "We have this huge growth in imports, this huge growth in trade; atthe same time we have severely cut back on our regulatory agenciesand their ability to do their job, especially the food portion ofthe Food and Drug Administration," said Jean Halloran, director offood policy initiatives for Consumers Union, which publishesConsumer Reports magazine. "If they are only checking 1 percent of the stuff and finding lotsof problems, then ... there are a lot of problems that are nevercaught," she said.
LAREDO, Texas, Day after day, Mexican trucks line up as far as theeye can see for entry to the U.S. at the World Trade Bridge,carrying everything from raw tomatoes, broccoli and fresh basil tofrozen seafood. They also bring in salmonella, listeria, restrictedpesticides and other food poisons.
Customs and Border Protection officers take less than a minute pertruck to determine which products enter the U.S. and find their wayinto grocery stores and restaurants across North Texas. Most trucks are waved through. The avalanche of imported goods,especially food from Mexico, is too much for the limited number ofinspectors at the nation's 300 ports of entry to effectivelyscreen, critics say. And the sheer volume makes it impossible forthem to carry out their mission: protecting the U.S. food supplyand American consumers.
Concerns about the nation's food inspection system are gainingurgency, especially as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration looksat Mexico as a likely source of salmonella-tainted tomatoes thathave sickened more than 800 people in the last two months. The FDAlast month sent inspectors to three Mexican states, Jalisco,Sinaloa and Coahuila, and Florida to check farms and packingplants. The great majority of the food that crosses the southern U.S.border is safe, U.S. officials say. But a surge in imports inrecent years means that the system of border inspections is badlystrained and in urgent need of repair, the officials acknowledge.
Inspectors at the border are tasked with enforcing hundreds ofregulations from more than 40 government agencies. And just a tinypercentage of agricultural products, seafood and manufactured goodsis actually inspected, say the critics. "We have this huge growth in imports, this huge growth in trade; atthe same time we have severely cut back on our regulatory agenciesand their ability to do their job, especially the food portion ofthe Food and Drug Administration," said Jean Halloran, director offood policy initiatives for Consumers Union, which publishesConsumer Reports magazine. "If they are only checking 1 percent of the stuff and finding lotsof problems, then ... there are a lot of problems that are nevercaught," she said.
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