Report: National food safety strategy needed
According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government’s oversight of food safety is too fragmented, with 16 federal agencies responsible for various aspects of food safety and quality.
According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government’s oversight of food safety is too fragmented, with 16 federal agencies responsible for various aspects of food safety and quality. While the GAO found progress has been made, there are still problems due to the lack of a unified strategy. The report is a performance audit started after a meeting on how to address the issue took place last June.
“For more than four decades, we have reported on the fragmented federal food safety oversight system,” wrote Steve D. Morris, director, Natural Resources and Environment, in a letter that prefaced the GAO report. “In January 2007, because of risks to the economy and to public health and safety, we added the federal oversight of food safety to our list of areas at high risk for fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement, or most in need of transformation.”
In March 2011, the GAO recommended that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in
consultation with the federal agencies having food safety responsibilities, develop a government-wide performance plan for food safety. In December 2014, it recommended that the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) more fully describe in their strategic and performance planning documents how they are working with other agencies to achieve their food-safety-related goals and objectives.
According to the report, the USDA has not yet fully implemented the GAO’s December 2014 recommendation that it describe interagency collaboration on food safety in its strategic and performance planning documents. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has not addressed the GAO’s March 2011 recommendation to develop a government-wide plan for the federal food safety oversight system.
The GAO recommends that the appropriate entities within the Executive Office of the President (EOP), in consultation with stakeholders, develop a national strategy that states the purpose of the strategy, established high-level sustained leadership, identifies resource requirements, monitors progress, and identifies short and long-term actions to improve the food safety oversight system. HHS, OMB, and the Domestic Policy Council did not comment on the recommendation. The USDA disagreed with the need for a national strategy but cited factors to consider should changes be proposed. The GAO believes the recommendation should be implemented.