From joe at breskin.com Thu Mar 26 12:47:21 2009 From: joe at breskin.com (joe breskin) Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:47:21 -0700 Subject: [Psgc4coop] something we were going to talk about, once upon a time Message-ID: <72BA31570ED241CFBD008F27D3C43823@littlejoe> WASHINGTON: Investigators find source of many foods untraceable 26.mar.09 New York Times Gardiner Harris http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/health/policy/26fda.html?_r=2 WASHINGTON -- Most food manufacturers and distributors cannot identify the suppliers or recipients of their products despite federal rules that require them to do so, federal health investigators have found. A quarter of the food facilities contacted by investigators as part of the study were not even aware that they were supposed to be able to trace their suppliers, according to a report by Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services. The report, expected to be made public Thursday, comes as President Obama and a bipartisan chorus of lawmakers have promised major changes to the nation's food-safety system. And it may help explain why many small food makers continue to issue peanut-related recalls more than two months after the Peanut Corporation of America was identified as the source of a salmonella scare that has sickened at least 691 people and has been linked to 9 deaths. The New York Times obtained a copy of the report. The investigators contacted 220 food facilities to ask about their supplier records. But only 118 of these businesses were included in the study because the rest were not required under rules adopted by the F.D.A. in 2005 to maintain supplier and recipient records. Of those 118 firms, 70 failed to provide investigators with required information about suppliers or customers, with 6 of the companies failing to provide any information at all. One vendor told investigators that it kept no records of tomato purchases. Tomatoes have repeatedly been implicated in nationwide food contamination scares, including one last year. Fifteen facilities told investigators they mixed raw products from more than 10 farms. "According to an estimate from a manager at a grain storage facility, if grain from one farm were contaminated, millions of bags of flour would be at risk and might have to be removed from retail shelves," the report stated. WASHINGTON: Investigators say food tracing system full of gaps 26.mar.09 Associated Press Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAgIorlF-SHlwfBMkgQjMl573F XAD975G0MG0 WASHINGTON -- Government investigators testing the nation's food tracing system were able to follow only five out of 40 foods all the way through the supply chain, according to a report to be released Thursday. The ability to trace food is a critical part of investigations into outbreaks of food-borne illness and would be crucial in a bioterrorism attack. Food companies are required by federal law to keep records that would allow investigators to follow suspect foods one step back and one step forward in the supply chain. But an investigation by the Health and Human Services inspector general's office found that the records many companies keep are not detailed enough. And one-quarter of the company managers were totally unaware of the record keeping requirements. "The food safety regulatory structure lacks an adequate traceability system," said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who requested the investigation. "Traceability is a critical tool in our ability to identify the source of a food-borne illness outbreak. Trace-back will be a critical part of food safety reform in this Congress." In the test, government investigators bought 40 food items, including bottled water, eggs, oatmeal, tomatoes, fruit juice and yogurt. They then attempted to trace the items back from the retailer to the source. They were only able to fully trace 12.5 percent of the items. For 31 of the 40, investigators said they were able to identify the facilities that most likely handled the products. And in the case of four items - 10 percent of the total - investigators were unable to identify the facilities than handled them.