TUESDAY, APRIL 05, 2011
America's eaters may have more questions than answers after using search tool...
T
he Obama Administration bills itself as the most tech savvy administration ever, and also the most transparent. But despite using taxpayer money to create all kinds of data sets and Apps with information collected by federal agencies, it still hasn't figured out how to accurately and rapidly transmit food safety information to the public. As one of the first salvos under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law byPresident Obama in January, FDA has unveiled a new "consumer friendly" web-based search engine so eaters can keep track of contaminated and possibly deadly edibles. Unfortunately, it has the potential to leave consumers more worried and confused than informed.
In a press release, FDA touts the search engine as the best way for consumers to keep track of recalls, and describes the tool thusly (see image below):
The search results provide data from news releases and other recall announcements in the form of a table. That table organizes information from news releases on recalls since 2009 by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall and the recalling firm.
"The news releases...provide the most up-to-date and user friendly information about any recall," FDA noted.
That is decidedly untrue. Outlets such as Food Safety News,Marler Blog, eFOODALERT, and Barf Blog, all run by private citizens who are food safety experts and professionals, frequently post information about food recalls and investigations far more rapidly than both FDA and USDA.
Needed: A single search engine for ALL recalled foods
The "historic" Food Safety Modernization Act provided for the first changes to food safety law in decades, and was supposed to create a new era in food safety. But consumers are still trumped by the fact that there are multiple agencies monitoring food. These agencies behave as if they are independent from each other (er, because they are). FDA's search engine covers only the foods that FDA monitors--and thus excludes meat, poultry and certain other foods, which are monitored by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The GAO just released two back-to-back reports calling for a single food agency, and this search engine should be entered into the evidence file for why that's a swell idea.
Why not create a really consumer friendly search engine that lists ALL food recalls, regardless of the agency that has issued the recall? It's time to eliminate the bureaucratic red tape that ensures that food safety information for consumers remains barricaded behind the silos of the individual agencies.
Needed: Red Flagging
The search engine presents information with no way for consumers to easily and rapidly identify the most dangerous recalls. For instance, right now, the top ten recalls listed (in this order) are for bread, smoked fish, sprouts, seafood salad products, powdered protein products, bubble gum, baked goods, ice cream, and two more kinds of bread. Some of those products are being recalled for undeclared allergens, and some are being recalled for deadly pathogens. Some are being recalled for pathogens that only impact a certain portion of the population (such as children, the elderly, pregnant women). But the information is presented as if every recall has an equivalent level of emergency.
Class 1 recalls--foods that contain pathogens that have the potential to kill eaters--should be red flagged. There's a big difference between potentially fatal pathogens and the many other reasons FDA decides to recall foods. It also makes a difference if the recalled food has already been found to have made consumers ill, so this should be noted, too. It's not.
Needed: Retail outlet lists
There's also nowhere in the search engine to search for retail outlets. The news releases FDA refers to often mention the states where foods are being recalled, but infrequently mention by name supermarkets or restaurants or other outlets where poison food has landed. This information often comes later. If the tool is not updated on a daily basis, it's less than useful. Sometimes food products get recalled on the way to market, and never enter the public food supply chain. This is not noted on the front page of the search tool either, and should be.
“We encourage people to check out our new recalls search page for themselves, and use it whenever they have a question about a recall,” said Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods said when announcing the new search engine. It's better than the old search engine, FDA said. (Above: A screenshot of the new search engine)
The search engine also has separate tables for recalls for drugs, animal health, biologics, and medical devices. FDA's press release about the project is here.
*Photo by Pete Souza/White House
T
he Obama Administration bills itself as the most tech savvy administration ever, and also the most transparent. But despite using taxpayer money to create all kinds of data sets and Apps with information collected by federal agencies, it still hasn't figured out how to accurately and rapidly transmit food safety information to the public. As one of the first salvos under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law byPresident Obama in January, FDA has unveiled a new "consumer friendly" web-based search engine so eaters can keep track of contaminated and possibly deadly edibles. Unfortunately, it has the potential to leave consumers more worried and confused than informed.In a press release, FDA touts the search engine as the best way for consumers to keep track of recalls, and describes the tool thusly (see image below):
The search results provide data from news releases and other recall announcements in the form of a table. That table organizes information from news releases on recalls since 2009 by date, product brand name, product description, reason for the recall and the recalling firm.
"The news releases...provide the most up-to-date and user friendly information about any recall," FDA noted.
That is decidedly untrue. Outlets such as Food Safety News,Marler Blog, eFOODALERT, and Barf Blog, all run by private citizens who are food safety experts and professionals, frequently post information about food recalls and investigations far more rapidly than both FDA and USDA.
Needed: A single search engine for ALL recalled foods
The "historic" Food Safety Modernization Act provided for the first changes to food safety law in decades, and was supposed to create a new era in food safety. But consumers are still trumped by the fact that there are multiple agencies monitoring food. These agencies behave as if they are independent from each other (er, because they are). FDA's search engine covers only the foods that FDA monitors--and thus excludes meat, poultry and certain other foods, which are monitored by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service.
The GAO just released two back-to-back reports calling for a single food agency, and this search engine should be entered into the evidence file for why that's a swell idea.
Why not create a really consumer friendly search engine that lists ALL food recalls, regardless of the agency that has issued the recall? It's time to eliminate the bureaucratic red tape that ensures that food safety information for consumers remains barricaded behind the silos of the individual agencies.
Needed: Red Flagging
The search engine presents information with no way for consumers to easily and rapidly identify the most dangerous recalls. For instance, right now, the top ten recalls listed (in this order) are for bread, smoked fish, sprouts, seafood salad products, powdered protein products, bubble gum, baked goods, ice cream, and two more kinds of bread. Some of those products are being recalled for undeclared allergens, and some are being recalled for deadly pathogens. Some are being recalled for pathogens that only impact a certain portion of the population (such as children, the elderly, pregnant women). But the information is presented as if every recall has an equivalent level of emergency.
Class 1 recalls--foods that contain pathogens that have the potential to kill eaters--should be red flagged. There's a big difference between potentially fatal pathogens and the many other reasons FDA decides to recall foods. It also makes a difference if the recalled food has already been found to have made consumers ill, so this should be noted, too. It's not.
Needed: Retail outlet lists
There's also nowhere in the search engine to search for retail outlets. The news releases FDA refers to often mention the states where foods are being recalled, but infrequently mention by name supermarkets or restaurants or other outlets where poison food has landed. This information often comes later. If the tool is not updated on a daily basis, it's less than useful. Sometimes food products get recalled on the way to market, and never enter the public food supply chain. This is not noted on the front page of the search tool either, and should be.
“We encourage people to check out our new recalls search page for themselves, and use it whenever they have a question about a recall,” said Mike Taylor, FDA Deputy Commissioner for Foods said when announcing the new search engine. It's better than the old search engine, FDA said. (Above: A screenshot of the new search engine)The search engine also has separate tables for recalls for drugs, animal health, biologics, and medical devices. FDA's press release about the project is here.
*Photo by Pete Souza/White House
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