That's Fit

A report released by the health advocacy organization, Trust for America's Health, finds that the US food safety system is lacking. Problems include out-of-date laws, inconsistencies within the system, and inadequate use of resources.

The report implies that the US food safety system is disjointed -- with more than 15 federal agencies playing some role in food safety. In addition, the report suggests that food safety needs to be more preventative than reactionary. For example, though the possibility of terrorist action infecting our food supply is known, very little has been done to prevent such a threat.

Suggestions for improvements include:

• Inspect foods through the entire production process.
• Update inspection procedures as changes occur.
• Establish standard practices of authority for recall and penalties.
• Improve inspection of imported foods.
• Increase FDA funding.

This week, the government of China said that a new food safety law geared at promoting standards at every level of production was on the top of the list in that country in terms of ensuring compliance in the near future.

While China has been under fire recently for product recalls ranging from baby toys to food-borne illnesses, the country needed to do something to stem the rash of negative PR. Is this enough?

Although Chinese officials continue to insist that all these recalls and problems are related to a handful of companies (without providing exact proof, I might add), perhaps this will lessen the international impact of how Chinese goods are perceived. Maybe not to those really paying attention.

Are you comfortable eating imported food and fruit? If you've paid attention to the recent pet food recall, you may just be paying more attention. So far, the root of that recall was contaminated wheat gluten from a Chinese supplier.

Try this on for size: just a measly 1.3% of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected. Does that make you feel safe? It shouldn't really, and even those inspections by the U.S. government regularly turns up food unfit for human consumption.

Even though the U.S. can't levy standards on food made outside the country, I would say that the FDA certain cam impose standards on foods sold to U.S. consumers. Is it feasible to do this, however? No big deal is at stake here -- just the health of the citizens, right?

The story plastered all over the front page of my local newspaper today is about food safety -- more specifically, how 48 restaurants in my city have failed standard inspections. After checking the list, I was relieved to find that none of my regular eating spots made the list, but the article nonetheless scared me. I just spent the long weekend in the kitchen with a close friend who runs a cafe, and while she is an amazingly clean and diligent restaurateur, I can see how easy it would be to be for someone lazy or indifferent to let cleaning duties fall behind, putting patrons in danger.

This made me start thinking about eating in restaurants and what we can do to protect ourselves. I personally eat out probably twice a week for lunch and twice a week for dinner -- four meals per week means four chances to get sick because of someone else's mistakes. Food safety organizations seem to be looking out for us, but are they doing enough? Are we putting too much trust in other people to watch what we eat? Or am I just being paranoid?

What do you think?