At a time when Europe is reeling with an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 4,100 and claimed the lives of 40, the House has passed a bill that would cut funding for the Microbiological Data Program. The ten year- old program tests annually about 15,000 samples of produce including sprouts, spinach, lettuce and tomatoes for deadly pathogens such as E.Coli and salmonella. In just two years the program’s findings have caused the FDA to make 19 recalls.
The Microbiological Data Program (MDP) is the only national program that screens fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. The program was created in conjunction with the Pesticide Data Program (PDP), which tests pesticide levels in produce. Both programs are operated out of the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and are partially funded by the produce industry. The MDP and PDP report their findings to the Food and Drug Administration which then decides if a recall is needed.
The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service was designed to promote U.S. produce but the industry claims that the MDP’s findings are counterproductive because they may hurt consumer confidence in farmers. In a letter to the Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsak, the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Advisory Committee called to defund $4.5 million from the program. In a Chicago Tribune interview, David Gombas of United Fresh Produce complained that the MDP’s findings were causing recalls, saying that,"over time it got twisted and it turned into a regulatory program where they were finding contamination and turning it over to the FDA and causing recalls."
But food safety advocates say the industry's attempts are motivated by profit. The Environmental Working Group has called the proposed bill a "serious diservice" to public health. The industry claims that the money could be better spent elsewhere because other programs such as the Food and Drug Administration also screen for pathogens. However, the FDA screens annually only 1,000 samples of produce a year. Even more concerning, the FDA does not screen for as many E. coli strains including the non-O157 strain responsible for Germany's outbreak.
According to the World Health Organization, foodborne illnesses costs the U.S. both monetarily and in lives. Diseases such as cholera, E. coli and salmonella cost $35 billion annually in medical costs and loss of reproductivity and causes 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths each year.
