New study urges more food regulation by USDA, FDA

The Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academies Thursday urged Congress to grant the Agriculture Department and FDA more food safety regulatory authority.

In a report, a panel of scientists noted that recent court rulings have "raised questions about the USDA's statutory authority" to inspect meat. The panel said food safety agencies should have "clear authority to establish, implement and enforce food safety criteria, including performance standards, and the flexibility needed within the administrative process to update these criteria."

After federal courts ruled USDA has no authority to set and enforce limits on salmonella contamination and USDA settled another case in which a company challenged the department's authority to enforce a new meat and poultry inspection system and sanitary standards, consumer groups and some members of Congress called on USDA to ask for new authority.

The Bush administration has not asked for additional authority, but Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman noted that meat inspections date "from the days of the Model T," and said she is considering asking for additional authority. Veneman said Thursday the report is "a scientific and not a legal review," but that she will respond to it within "a matter of weeks." FDA Deputy Commissioner Lester Crawford said, "I don't find much to disagree with" in the report.

Meanwhile, Crawford Thursday defended his agency's regulations on imported food under the new bioterrorism law. Foreign food producers and U.S. importers have said complying with the requirements is cumbersome and expensive, but Crawford told reporters after a speech to a Pan American Health Organization conference on health and agriculture that, before the Bioterrorism Act was passed, the FDA had "very little authority."

The new law gives FDA the authority to require food companies to register, get advance notification of food shipments, detain questionable food shipments at the border, and forbid shippers that do not follow the rules from operating. Crawford said FDA had recently taken comments from some Mexican producers into consideration and would work with other foreign producers and importers to reduce their burden "as long as there is something we can do within the confines of the law." But he also warned, "The law doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room" and goes into effect Dec. 12.