Watchdog group sues FDA for information on inspection force

Food & Water Watch, a food-safety advocacy group, sued FDA on Monday in a dispute over work plans detailing the deployment of the agency's inspection force.

FDA has kept these details secret from the group as well as from Senate Democrats.

Under pressure to step up oversight of imported products, FDA officials have complained to lawmakers that the agency needs more resources to expand its inspection staff and modernize its oversight efforts.

FDA officials have not coughed up a ballpark figure for how much additional funding and staff they need.

"The Food and Drug Administration is chronically short on resources to address food safety, and we are being denied important information on how the agency has managed these resources to protect consumers in the face of ever-increasing food imports," Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said on Monday.

In February, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, were denied the same work plans, which detail annual agency inspection goals. Food & Water Watch lobbyist Tony Corbo said the plans would help advocates and lawmakers understand where FDA's deficiencies are in the field. Food & Water Watch asked FDA for the work plans in August. FDA shortly after turned down the Freedom of Information Act request because the agency claimed the plans contained confidential information.

"This is the FDA, not the CIA," Corbo said. USDA gave Food & Water Watch its work plans in October, he added, after the group requested information on USDA's vacancy rates. Food & Water Watch filed its lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.