According to The Food and Drug Administration's website, fda.gov, the "FDA is a scientific regulatory agency responsible for the safety of the nation's domestically produced and imported foods [ . . .]." However, the FDA is not the sole governing body charged with food regulation and inspection. The primary responsibility for inspecting meat, poultry, and eggs falls to another agency, The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) which reports to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The FDA and FSIS collaborate and overlap to regulate food marketed domestically, regardless of its origin.
Who monitors food safety?
The Role of the FSIS
Most meat and poultry is inspected by the FSIS.
The percentage of food inspected by the FDA does not reflect markets regulated by the FSIS. According to fsis.usda.gov, "the FSIS inspects and monitors all meat, poultry and egg products sold in interstate and foreign commerce to ensure compliance with mandatory U.S. food safety standards and inspection legislation."
Exceptions to FSIS Meat Regulation
The FDA monitors meats outside of the FSIS jurisdiction.
In "Food Safety Agencies and Authorities: A Primer," Jean Rawson and Donna Vogt clarify that the "FDA has jurisdiction over meats from animals or birds that are not under the regulatory jurisdiction of FSIS [. . .]' including "rabbit, deer, moose, buffalo, quail, or ratites (ostriches, emu and rheas) that have not been submitted for inspection under a voluntary FSIS ratite inspection program."
FDA Regulatory Initiatives
The FDA depends on a network of programs to promote food safety.
According to foodsafety.gov, the FDA addresses foods not regulated by the FSIS categorically through initiatives dependent upon increased corporate responsibility, focused inspections, risk-based sampling, food safety regulations, and cooperative programs with individual states.
Spread Thin
Only a portion of food and food firms are inspected by the FDA.
The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) states that the "FDA is responsible for ensuring the safety of roughly 80 percent of the U.S. food supply from domestic and foreign markets." In 2007, the FDA inspected 40.5 percent of the 36,199 food firms subject to its jurisdiction.
Inspections are Minimal
Does the FDA have the resources to manage the food industry's expanding market?
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the FDA currently "has the capacity to inspect only 1% of food at the U.S. border." Domestically, according to Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives for Consumers Union, the "FDA inspects U.S. food production facilities only about once every ten years on average."
Tags: food safety, meat poultry, food firms, Food Safety, percent food, regulated FSIS