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The FDA this Week: Andy's
Take

FDA: Finding Food Problems Faster

Commissioner's
Biography

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FDA
This Week: Andy's Take

About Andy’s Take

Through this communications column on the FDA Web site,
Commissioner for Food and Drugs Andrew von Eschenbach will discuss
weekly FDA issues of interest to the American consumer and
occasionally preview upcoming FDA issues and events.

Archive
of Andy's Take

June 6, 2008

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Audio
Version (MP3 - 1.61 MB, Run Time - 00:3:31)

Welcome to Andy’s Take

Recently the FDA was notified of
illnesses caused by Salmonella, a type of bacteria that can
cause serious problems in young children, frail or elderly people,
and those with weakened immune systems. Working rapidly with our
partners at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and agencies in
the states, we quickly determined the source to be certain types of
raw red tomatoes. We immediately intervened with public health
warnings to consumers in Texas and New Mexico, advising them to not
eat raw red plum, red Roma, or round red tomatoes.

My
Take is that even with this great response and intervention, we
must do better. These rapid response and intervention efforts are
effective but we must also have an active prevention strategy that
will keep these problems from ever developing – that is the reason
behind the creation of FDA’s Food Protection Plan.

The Food
Protection Plan builds safety into the food supply through
prevention. It also employs cutting-edge science and technology for
dealing with microbial and chemical contamination and it includes
state-of-the-art information technology systems. By building safety
into the food supply through prevention at the source, this new
dynamic is enabling the FDA of the 21st century to be better able to
ensure that the food you eat is safe.

At the same time, the
FDA is pursuing many initiatives to enable us to more rapidly detect
problems like these that just occurred as well as to immediately
investigate to find the source of the contamination, including
working with industry to improve track and trace technologies. This
outbreak was detected with the help of sophisticated laboratories
using advanced technology to quickly identify the harmful bacteria
and to do even better we are expanding our scientific collaboration
with academia and state agencies.

The FDA continues to
accelerate the hiring of more experts in both our centers and our
field offices. And, we are building capacity overseas through the
FDA’s Beyond our Borders initiative – which will put FDA scientists
and experts on the ground in locations like China and India –
because many of the foods we consume today originate
overseas.

Ten years ago, we probably would not have become
aware of the contaminated tomatoes until many more people were sick.
Through prevention, intervention and response – and with a full
workforce of professionals here and abroad -- serious illness can be
minimized.  We will continue to make FDA and a food industry
better able to protect you and your family and better able to keep
contaminated foods from ever reaching your dining table.

Thanks for checking in for Andy’s Take and I will talk to you
next week.

Andy

Andrew
C. von Eschenbach, M.D.
Commissioner of Food and
Drugs

PLEASE NOTE: Updates on tomatoes are ongoing. For the
latest please visit: Salmonellosis
Outbreak Linked to Certain Types of Tomatoes

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