Addressing A Lack Of Inter-Agency, Food-Safety Collaboration
By Laurel Maloy, contributing writer, Food Online
The Government Accountability Office is mandating Congress to lead the efforts to develop a government-wide, food-safety performance plan
According to a recent report on Federal Food-Safety Oversight, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) feels that additional actions are necessary in order to improve food-safety planning and collaboration. Referencing the Government Performance and Results Modernization Act of 2010 (GPRAMA), the GAO says the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) could do more to fully address cross-agency, food-safety efforts. Furthermore, the GAO takes issue with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). It recommended the OMB develop a government-wide performance plan for food safety in 2011, which the OMB has not acted upon.
At issue is the fact that interagency collaboration and cooperation is absolutely necessary to facilitate a comprehensive interpretation of the overall performance of food-safety programs. According to the GAO report, HHS’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have mechanisms in place with which to facilitate such cooperation. However, a broader-based, more-centralized, collaborative effort would more efficiently foster the cooperation between agencies; therefore enhancing food-safety oversight.
The GAO points specifically to a failed centralized system for collaboration, which was followed by the President’s Food Safety Working Group (FSWG), designed to revive that centralization. According to the GAO, the FSWG no longer meets. The last progress report from the group was published in December of 2011 — 12 months after the President mandated the drafting of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This progress report makes mention of a USDA Incident Command System Working Group, which in turn developed protocols for a Multi-Agency Coordination Group for Foodborne Illness Outbreaks. In searching for information on the Multi-Agency Coordination Group, reference was made to it by the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) in its Guidelines document. However, if this group is still active, it does not maintain a current website. CIFOR, established in 2005, appears to have dropped off the map after 2013.
Confused yet? It seems the GAO is pointing its finger in the right direction in an attempt to unravel a collaborative system that existed, and then didn’t, then did. Now, it doesn’t seem to work anymore. Such a system is needed, not only to more-efficiently respond to foodborne illness outbreaks, but to prevent duplication of efforts and to ensure monies are utilized proficiently. The GAO concluded its report with a Recommendation for Executive Action, Matters for Congressional Consideration and its own evaluation on page 31 of its report. Time will tell as the newly elected congressmen get down to business in January.