4th Quarter USH Research - Issues & Perspectives 1945-2015

Mason Jennings

5/14/2015

Final USH Essay 

Do you care about the quality of food you eat on a daily basis?  Of course you do.  Nobody wants to eat something that will make you sick or give you a disease.  But when is a food considered okay to eat or sell?  And who gets the say in when a food item can enter the circulation of the United States?  Well, that is a complex question.  The FDA, or Food and Drug Administration, is the government administration that can deny or accept any drug or food item trying to enter the US market.  Some products may be perfectly legal in other countries, but could be restricted in the United States.  The FDA was established to keep people safe from food or drugs that could cause harm.  

The FDA is a regulatory agency within the Department of Health and Human Services.  The purpose and goal of both of the agencies is to regulate the safety and effectiveness of drugs and food items.  Formed in 1906, the FDA has of course gone through many changes and criticism.  The FDA is now a ginormous industry that supervises items such as tobacco products, dietary supplements, blood transfusions, animal food, veterinary products, and cosmetics.  The FDA is now responsible for inspection and oversight for over one million food establishments around the country.  The FDA strives for science-based regulations in retail food businesses instead of opinion based.  

You may be wondering, when is something considered to be safe to eat and sell?  Well the process of getting something accepted by the FDA is not easy, to say the least.  The FDA first does basic research of the product, and then into more in-depth research and how people from other countries may have reacted to it.  Once the FDA develops a strong enough idea of the product, it then goes to the FDA review.  The FDA review consists of many of the FDA leaders reviewing your product and voting on whether it should be deemed safe or not.  This process could take a very long time, as you can imagine.  After the product passes the FDA review, it then goes to post approval reviews and then into marketing.    The FDA review panel has seen to be biased or corrupt in the past by not accepting a product due to the huge competition in the market today.  

Perhaps one of the biggest controversies in the FDA panel was the hesitation to approve the natural sweetener called “Stevia”.  Stevia has been in circulation in other countries for years, with no problems.  Stevia is a zero calorie sweetener that is said to be 150 to 400 times sweeter than actual sugar.  The FDA first labeled it as an “unsafe food additive” and kept it from entering the market.  With millions of uses of stevia around the world with no health issues, people began to wonder why the sweetener was not being accepted by the FDA.  One reason why the FDA did not approve the sweetener at first is because of the politically powerful sweetener industry.  Finally, in 1994, stevia could be sold in stores, but under one condition.  It could not be labeled as a “sweetener” or even as a “tea”.  Rob McCaleb, the president and founder of the Herb Research Foundation said “Sweetness is big money.  Nobody wants to see something cheap and easy to grow on the market competing with the things they worked so hard to get approved.”  Many political cartoons are made about the FDA and their specific choices in which products get approved and which products get denied.  

Approving food and drug items is not the only controversy the FDA undergoes.  The FDA has been under some extreme scrutiny about their actions (or lack thereof) of unsafe foods that have been accepted into the US market.  The NRDC or Natural Resource Defense Council, recently sued the FDA because the FDA did not take action to the study that said 90% of American’s carry BPA’s (Bisphenol A) due to contact with everyday items.  The FDA states that BPA’s are harmless to humans.  The world is just now learning about the harmful effects of BPA’s such as harmful effects on brain behavior, and prostate glands in fetuses, infants, and young children.  Another lack of action from the FDA came in 2011 when the cafeteria that re-packaged its mold applesauce as fruit cups only received a warning in their actions.  And on top of that, the senior consultant of the FDA Jay Cole said “Any food can be reconditioned”.  

In reaction from all of the criticism of food borne illnesses, the FDA established the FSMA Act or the Food Safety Modernization Act on January 4th, 2011.  Food borne illnesses affect 48 million American’s every year, killing thousands.  Instead of just responding to the illnesses, the FDA now actively tries to prevent any food borne illness in the United States such as salmonella, campylobacter, E coli, and listeria.  In addition to trying to fix this problem, the FDA comes out with Food Codes every three or four years.  "The Food Codes assist the food controlled jurisdictions of the FDA by providing a scientifically sound legal basis for regulating the distribution of food products." (FDA.gov).   

Granted, it is probably not easy trying to monitor and control all the things the FDA does.  With the United States having such a huge market, there are a lot of things that could go wrong.  Once something goes wrong, all fingers are usually immediately pointed at the FDA.  The FDA has an extremely important job in the US and who knows where we would be today without them.  They keep us safe and regulate things that could be harmful immediately or over time.  The FDA may make some mistakes here and there, sure but their entire organization is based on keeping us safe, and considering some problems in other countries, they are doing a great job.  The FDA has been around for one hundred and nine years, and they will most likely be around for many more.     

Political cartoon of the corrupt FDA panel and their ties with financial conflicts. 

FDA with the "$" showing it's corruptness and it's connection with the big name products. 

How the FDA examines the packages coming in and what happens if it is not admissible.

Political cartoon with humor of the FDA and the restrictions on food coloring and dyes. 

The most recent Food Code sent out by the FDA. 

Sources:
FDA.gov
Primary Source.  The FDA's website has all the information one could possibly want to know about the FDA.  The entries are, of course, very biased toward the FDA since it is their own website.
Congressional Research Service
Primary Source.  This is a PDF of how and why exactly a drug or food item can enter the circulation.  It shows the steps to making an appropriate decision on whether or not it is safe.
Mercatus Center
The Mercatus Center, of George Mason University, has many entries specifically about the FDA.  Professors and students write entries about stuff like "Are FDA Regulations safe?" and "More FDA Funding Doesn't Equal Better Food Safety"
Switchboard - NRDC
Primary Source.  NRDC or Natural Resources Defense Council, is a blog spot for recognized scientists and environmentalists to answer questions and write blogs about different topics.  "How Does the FDA Know What Is Safe to Eat or Buy If It Doesn't Define Safe?" was the blog I read, written by Peter Lehner.
People's World 
People's World is a more open blog spot for people to state opinions and write.  I read an interesting article on this website called "FDA says it's OK to turn bad food into sell-able stuff".  It states that a school lunch company took moldy applesauce and repackaged it into fruit cups to sell as school lunches.. Gross, but interesting.
Criticism of the Food and Drug Administration
I used this website because it has some of the lawsuits the FDA has gone through about approval of controversial animal drugs used in food production.
The FDA & Stevia 
This is a website that is only about the plant stevia.  Stevia was a very controversial sweetener additive that the FDA was very slow to accept due to the huge market for sweeteners already.
Food Safety 
This is a government run website about how government responds to food illness outbreaks such as salmonella and E. coli.