Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration (2010)
Recent outbreaks of illnesses traced to contaminated sprouts and lettuce illuminate the weaknesses in the system for preventing foodborne diseases. Although food safety is the responsibility of everyone, from producers to consumers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has an essential role and currently oversees monitoring and intervention for 80 percent of the food supply. The FDA's ability to discover potential threats to food safety and prevent outbreaks of foodborne illness are hampered by the inefficient use of its limited resources and a piecemeal approach to gathering and using information on risks. Enhancing Food Safety, a report from the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council, responds to a congressional request for recommendations on how to close gaps in FDA's food safety systems.
