Fed food safety budgets may increase, but not enough?

According to an article published in Food Engineering February 12, 2010 the upcoming increase in spending by the FDA will not be enough for food safety budgets. Here is the article:

While many federal agencies are facing a freeze in discretionary spending in the next budget, FDA is a notable exception. FDA's budget could actually grow by as much as 23 percent, with much of the new spending focused on food safety.

If Congress approves, it will be food manufacturers who pay for much of the increase in higher user fees. The fees, which would also be paid by generic drug makers, are a big part of the FDA's expanded food safety mandate. It entails more inspections and improved data collection. Under the FDA's proposed budget, the agency's staff could also grow by 10 percent.

Meanwhile, USDA's proposed budget allocation is $149 billion in the coming fiscal year, with discretionary spending down 18 percent over 2009 spending levels. Entitlement spending, however, is up 28 percent. More than 70 percent of USDA's entire budget would pay for nutrition assistance programs.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) praised the proposed increase for FDA but noted funding for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service remains essentially frozen with what she termed a “miniscule” 1.9 percent increase.

“The FSIS is responsible for front-line inspections and recalls, and will be stretched beyond its capacity by the growing population of our country and the resulting increase in food consumption,” DeLauro said in a statement. “FSIS should be given the resources to perform the critical food safety activities that comprise USDA’s public health mission area.”

What are your thoughts? Is the increased spending and focus on food safety enough to combat recent outbreaks and promote food safety initiatives? How can the FSIS keep up on front-line inspections without a larger budget increase?

FDA requests more than $4 billion for safety

On February 1st, the FDA stated that it is requesting $4.03 billion to promote and protect public health as part of President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget. The request represents a 23% increase over the current $3.28 billion budget and would include an increase of $318.3 million related to improving food safety.

“The FY 2011 resources will strengthen our ability to act as a strong and smart regulator, protecting Americans through every stage of life, many times each day,” said Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA “This budget supports the ability for patients and families to realize the benefits of science that are yielding revolutionary advances in the life and biomedical sciences.”

The FDA said this budget requests shows its “resolve to transform food safety practices, improve medical product safety, protect patients and modernize FDA regulatory science to advance public health.”

As part of the Transforming Food Safety initiative, the FDA said it plans to set standards for safety, expand laboratory capacity, pilot track and trace technology, strengthen its import safety program, improve data collection and risk analysis and begin to establish an integrated national food safety system with strengthened inspection and response capacity.

What do you think? Is the proposed budget too much or right on target?