FDA fails to control peanuts induced salmonella illness

Maryland, April 3: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is the centre of attraction these days for all the wrong reasons. It has come under the scanner for its inability to take requisite measures to control the increasing number of salmonella illness cases caused by peanut products.

The FDA has not altered any safety steps required to be followed by peanut companies. Nor has it given proper guidelines to its food inspectors to check for salmonella bacteria at peanut facilities.

There have been four outbreaks of salmonella illness from peanut products in the last three years. In 2006, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported three salmonella outbreaks related to peanuts. Experts believe that this increase should have served as a wake-up call for the FDA. But it did not take the reports seriously.

After the salmonella outbreak caused by Peter Pan peanut butter in 2007, the FDA had ensured that it will carry out rigorous inspections at peanut plants. But nothing of this sort has been put into practice till date.

The FDA has been seriously criticized by the Congress and President Obama for its recent failure, which led to the outbreak of salmonella illness associated with products sold by the Peanut Corporation of America.

The latest outbreak, which began in September 2009, has killed nine people and sickened more than 690.

However, the FDA is finally trying to tackle the loopholes and come up with something concrete to avoid any such future outbreak. Many steps are being taken in this regard.

Firstly, FDA inspectors and state officials under contract are now “being encouraged to look for every opportunity to conduct environmental sampling” of peanut processing units in order to check for bacteria.

This means that inspectors should test a sample of the product if they observe physical conditions such as moisture, unsatisfactory sanitation, recent construction, roof leaks etc.

The FDA has also issued guidelines to food companies, which say that manufacturers should buy peanuts only from processors where the risk of salmonella contamination is minimal.

Food safety experts believe that microbial testing should be the most important part of regular FDA inspections. Also, such inspections should be extended to seafood and juice producers.

Salmonella is a widespread food-borne bacteria found in the United States. Around 40,000 cases of salmonella illness are reported in the country every year. But many milder cases go unnoticed, and hence the number could be 30 times higher than this figure.