As salmonella in peppers sickened 1,440 people over 89 days and Whole Foods recalled E. coli-infested ground beef, Marler reveals the uncomfortable reality behind food safety: "The responsibility for food safety, as it works today, lies heavily in private hands." Despite calls for FDA reform and increased funding, the government has been handing off many responsibilities to private industry, creating a booming business—and alarming gaps. Following mid-1990s E. coli outbreaks, federal officials worked with industry to create voluntary guidelines, spawning an entire cottage industry of third-party food safety consultants. "These audits are like icing on the cake of litigation," Marler argues. "Every major manufacturer does them, and every major manufacturer pays no attention to them." Major concerns include the lack of certification systems for inspectors, inconsistent auditing across crops, and costly overlapping requirements that squeeze producers.
A GAO report found it would cost the FDA over $3.5 billion to inspect every one of roughly 250,000 domestic and foreign food facilities just once, with current inspections lucky to hit the same facility every three years. While private auditors must be part of the solution, Marler believes only the federal government has the independence and credibility to certify them, pointing to medical devices as a successful model. "The only entity with the independence and credibility to make that call, most experts say, is the federal government," he concludes, arguing that voluntary measures and private enforcement have proven insufficient to protect public health.
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