Hank Investigates: Who's Watching What You Eat

Sue Doneth, Lindsay's Mother
"I couldn't believe what happened. I just assumed there were huge systems in place to ensure the safety of the food supply."

But in fact, 76 million people get sick and 5,000 die each year in the U.S. from eating food contaminated with pathogens like e-coli, salmonella, listeria, hepatitis, and cyclospora. One reason is that when it comes to preventing illness, we found the current federal system is inefficient, inconsistent and ineffective.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Who's in charge here?"

Carol Tucker Foreman, Consumer Federation of America
"No one's in charge!"

It turns out that 12 different agencies are responsible for policing your food! Look at this list, every one of these has some jurisdiction over some part of the food supply, and who's assigned to what basically doesn't make any sense.

Milk cows? They’re under the food and drug administration, FDA. Beef cows? They're department of agriculture, USDA. Eggs, that's FDA. But chickens? That's USDA. A pre-packaged open faced ham and cheese sandwich? FDA. A pre-packaged closed-face ham and cheese? That's USDA.

Mike Taylor, a former official in both agencies, says your tax money pays for this: one billion dollars a year.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Are we getting our moneys worth?"

Mike Taylor, Former USDA/FDA official
"No, I think frankly that the public expects that we do the best job we reasonably can, and we're not doing that now."

What's more, since each agency has its own rules for inspecting food, similar foods are treated differently! Factories making pepperoni pizzas are inspected every day. But pizza with just cheese might be inspected only once every five years! Beef broth: inspected every day. Chicken broth: every five years. Beans with bacon: every day. Beans with pork: every five years.

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Does that make sense?"

Carol Tucker Foreman, Consumer Federation of America
"No, of course it doesn't make any sense."

The problem is that the inspection system is based on dozens of outdated laws requiring outmoded techniques.

Carol Tucker Foreman
"We don’t have a system that’s specifically set up to prevent foodborne illness."

Experts are particularly worried about food from other countries, especially since such shipments have doubled in the past five years. This government report admits, "federal agencies cannot ensure that the growing volume of imported foods is safe for consumers."

Here's why. USDA inspectors do check every shipment of imported meat and poultry, but imported fruits and vegetables, forget about it! That's up to FDA, but it has so few inspectors, only 1 percent of imported produce ever gets looked at!

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"Why doesn't the FDA inspect that food?"

Mike Taylor, Former USDA/FDA official
"Well, they don't have the money to inspect the food."

Hank Phillippi Ryan
"As a result?"

Mike Taylor, Former USDA/FDA official
"As a result, food goes uninspected and hazards go undetected."

And that brings up what no one really wants to talk about- what if someone wanted to contaminate our food on purpose? In 1984, a cult group hit an Oregon salad bar with salmonella. 750 people got sick!

We found that this recent government report admits food bioterrorism is "an emerging risk"! It also warns of "real doubts about the system's ability to detect and quickly respond to such an event." All the more reason, experts say, to make some changes in this confusing (outdated) bureaucracy.

Carol Tucker Foreman, Consumer Federation of America
"Given the fact that we're now on the front lines of a war that may include food poisoning, we have to change that system."

This is now one of the hottest topics on Capitol Hill. In fact Tom Ridge, the director of homeland security, is now reportedly leading the push to put just one agency in charge of the federal food safety system.

Experts say that you can help protect yourself and your family by carefully washing all produce and thoroughly cooking all meats.