A shortage of funds is hindering efforts by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to research the safety of chemical additives in the nation’s food supply, Dr. Robert Califf, the outgoing head of the FDA said during a Senate committee hearing last Thursday.
"We have repeatedly asked for better funding for chemical safety…Please look at our request for funding for the people who do this work, remember that when we do ban something, it will go to court, and if we don't have the scientific evidence…we will lose in court," Califf said in comments before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
"We have just completed the largest reorganization in FDA's history, in no small part, so that we could take on the issues of nutrition and chemicals in our food supply," Califf said.
Held last Thursday, the hearing, titled “What is the FDA Doing to Reduce the Diabetes and Obesity Epidemics in America and Take on the Greed of the Food and Beverage Industry?”, covered a wide range of topics concerning food safety and the FDA’s role in protecting the country’s food supply.
The hearing was called by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, mainly to address diabetes and obesity.
In March, the FDA issued a press release stating that it is requesting $7.2 billion to enhance food safety as part of the fiscal year 2025 proposed budget - $495 million more than the 2023 budget. The increase included $114.8 million in salaries for public health employees.
The FDA said the funds would “allow the agency to enhance food safety and nutrition, advance medical product safety, help support supply chain resiliency, strengthen the agency’s public-health and mission-support capacity, and modernize the FDA’s infrastructure and facilities.”
In April, Califf said that the FDA is being forced to cut funding to state and local food safety inspection programs due to a shortfall in funds.
During a congressional committee hearing in April, Califf was asked by Rep. Sanford Bishop of Georgia about FDA plans to cut almost $34 million in funding for inspections.
Califf said “we’ve gone beyond what was appropriated to support the states. What we’ve done is to let the states know that fiscal times are tighter, we don’t have excess money to move around to meet needs.”
Shortly before President-elect Donald Trump tapped him as the presumptive nominee to serve as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to purge the FDA, saying that the FDA’s “war on public health is about to end.”
He also called on FDA employees to “pack your bags.”
Last week’s senate hearing came several months after a Gallup poll in July found that U.S. consumer confidence in food safety is at an all-time low.
The survey found that only 57% of respondents have “a fair amount” or “a great deal” of confidence in the ability of the government to keep the food supply safe - a drop of 11 percentage points from the 2019 survey.
In its survey publication, Gallup wrote that “the drop in confidence could reflect Americans’ recognition of the difficulty in responding to a large number of health threats in the food supply, as well as declining trust in the government in general. Americans’ confidence in the food available at most grocery stores has also deteriorated, which speaks to the challenges that the industry -- and the government -- will face in both keeping food safe and reassuring Americans that it is safe.”
Gallup also noted that a recent rise in food safety recalls has likely affected consumer confidence.
The FDA reported that 1,908 food products were recalled in the fiscal year that ended in September - the highest number since 2019 when 2,046 food and cosmetic products were recalled.
In an NPR article this week, food safety advocate and professor at Northeastern University Darin Detwiler said that the fact that detection methods for outbreaks have greatly improved “doesn't mean the system is 'working,” adding “true progress will come when we stop seeing outbreaks and recalls as routine events, and when we address the root causes of contamination."
Last week, Rootwurks held a webinar on the past year’s wave of food safety recalls featuring Andrea Griffiths of ASI. To hear the webinar and learn some of the reasons why there has been an increase in recalls - and what you can do to mitigate the risk of facing a recall - watch the webinar on-demand here.