Obama Orders Review of FDA Operations
Seattle – Recently, peanut butter products had been contaminated by salmonella in which the FDA failed to detect. President Barrack Obama is ordering a complete review of the Food and Drug Administration operations. The outbreak of salmonella affected over 500 people and killed possibly up to 8 people. President Obama told Matt Lauer, the Today co-host, about his plans.
President Obama is not happy with the way the FDA has not caught these types of outbreaks in the past several years. The expectations he has of the FDA are not being met and is determined to do something about the problem.
Although the President did not specifically say what other instances the FDA had not caught quick enough, there are accusations that the administration under President George Bush failed the FDA by cutting back on their budget, which in turn prevents the FDA from doing its job properly.
The peanut butter products that were contaminated have been linked to a plant that is operated by Peanut corp. of American out of Lynchburg, Virginia. President Obama feels strongly that at the very least the families in America should be able to trust the government to make sure that our children are safe in eating the food produced and sold in grocery stores. The salmonella seems to be only in peanut paste products and not bulk or jarred peanut butter.
The company out of Georgia that is associated with Peanut corp. of America, is being criminally investigated by the FDA and Justice Department. They are being accused of sending out these products with the salmonella even after discovering that they were infected with the bacteria.
President Obama is especially connected to the peanut butter contamination because his seven year old daughter, Sasha, eats peanut butter three times a week. Luckily, the President’s daughters were not infected but the fact that they easily could have been concerns the President even more.
The FDA will have a revamp of the way they handle food that is going out to ensure that contaminated foods are caught more quickly before hundreds of citizens become ill and have possible fatal contamination of their own.
If and when another outbreak of food contamination occurs, hopefully the FDA will be running smoothly and have the funding from the government that is needed to get things done the right way before the products are shipped out. Salmonella and other types of bacteria can be seriously harmful and some fatal, that fact alone should be enough to get things right with the FDA, and to get it right immediately.
In that the FDA found evidence of salmonella at the Georgia plant, but
officials said earlier that it was a different strain from that of the
outbreak. close attention need to be paid to the other likely products,
based on the survey from the patients. Thanks.