F.D.A. Leaves Tainted Foods on Shelves Too Long, Report Finds
was aware of a potentially hazardous food in the supply chain.’’
The new report noted that it took the agency 165 days to start a recall of nut butters
that may have been tainted with salmonella; 151 days to recall hazelnuts that also suspected of salmonella contamination; 82 days to recall frozen spinach suspected of high levels of cadmium; and 27 days to start a recall of cooked duck eggs carrying the bacteria that cause botulism.
“The F. D.A.’s response to food recalls is both slow and inadequate.”
Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that the agency had taken to heart the inspector general’s earlier warning
and had already started to address recall enforcement problems that have persisted for years.
“Each and every day is important, because every day the product remains on the shelf, consumers are potentially at risk for serious illness or death,’’ said George Nedder, an assistant regional inspector general at Health
and Human Services and lead author of the new report.
Many of the problems detailed in the report were the subject of an unusual “early alert memorandum” from the inspector general’s office in June 2016, which warned
that “consumers remained at risk of illness or death for several weeks after F. D.A.
Dr. Sidney Wolfe, senior adviser at Public Citizen, an advocacy group he founded, said six years after the law was signed, the F. D.A.
The report noted numerous failings, among them “deficiencies in F. D.A.’s oversight of
recall initiation, monitoring of recalls,” and in collecting and tracking recall data.
