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- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States needs a powerful food safety chief
to oversee food from farm to table, a panel of scientific experts said
Thursday, possibly to head a body unifying the dozen agencies now doing
the chore. In a report requested by Congress to aid its modernization of
food safety work, the National Academy of Sciences panel also recommended
the repeal of laws requiring federal inspection of every animal carcass.
The ``sniff and poke'' examination dates from the early 1900s and is the
first line of defense in ensuring meat is safe to eat. The report called
for a uniform set of food safety rules to replace the current mishmash
and adoption of a science-based regime that would identify and prevent
the major food risks, such as chemical or microbial contamination. An estimated
9,000 Americans die and millions get sick each year from eating contaminated
food. ``To address the fragmentation of the U.S. system, Congress should
establish a unified, central framework, headed by one official who controls
resources for all federal food safety activities,'' panel chairman John
Bailar, of the University of Chicago, told a news conference. ``It may
be that the best arrangement would be to establish a single food safety
agency...'' Many of the 13 members of the panel believed a super-agency
was the best approach, the report said. Bailar said the committee, operating
on consensus, did not vote on the idea. Instead, it recommended a unified
system directed by ``an identifiable, high-ranking, presidentially appointed
head'' who controls the budget and staff for food safety inspection, research,
public education and investigation of food illnesses. A new cabinet-rank
food safety agency was one of four possible ways to achieve the goal, the
report said. Other examples were a Food Safety Council of agency directors
or naming one of the current agencies as leader for all work. The consumer
group Center for Science in the Public Interest said the report proved
``the weakness'' of a splintered system ''that works better for Washington
power brokers and bureaucrats than it does for American consumers.'' CSPI
advocates creation of a consolidated food agency. Kelly Johnston of the
National Food Processors Association, a trade group, said there was ``no
real public pressure'' to change the food safety system. ``Anytime you
play with jurisdiction ... it's really hard to do in Congress,'' Johnston
said. Bailar said the amalgam of food safety agencies was ``a patchwork
quilt rather than a seamless network'' but the risk to consumers was small.
Panel member Marsha Cohen, of the University of California-San Francisco,
said the committee resisted calling its proposed food-safety chief a ``czar''
because most officials carrying that moniker hold little or no power. Rather
than requiring visual examination of each carcass, the panel said, Congress
should devote more attention to preventing contamination of food and to
implementing the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point system. Also known
as HACCP, the system focuses on the points where contamination risks are
highest and finding ways to prevent it. In addition, the report said the
United States should allow food imports only from nations whose food inspection
standards are equal to U.S. rules. Chartered by Congress in 1863, the National
Academy of Sciences is a private group of scholars whose duties include
advising the government on scientific and technical issues.
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