In case you haven't heard, tomatoes are back on the menu and investigators are now focusing on jalapeno peppers as the source of salmonella that has sickened nearly 1,300 people across the nation.  OhMyGov! first reported on the investigation shortly after it began in early June and congratulated the Food and Drug Administration for their efforts despite not receiving the appropriate funding from the White House.  At that time, at least 167 individuals had been sickened and officials warned consumers to avoid certain types of tomatoes.  This lead to many restaurants removing tomatoes from their menus and an estimated loss of $250 million for tomato growers and related businesses.

Now it appears that the food industry's own successful lobbying efforts to reduce record keeping have contributed to the significant delay in the FDA's ability to track down the source of the illness.  A recent Associated Press report about the lobbying efforts cites White House meeting records obtained by the advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest and former senior officials in Bush's cabinet and the FDA.

FDA proposals that would have required the food industry to maintain more detailed and electronic records that could be easily reviewed during a food safety crisis were diluted by the White House in 2003 and 2004.  The records requirements were part of the FDA's proposed bioterrorism rules but food companies argued that the regulations would be too cumbersome and costly and warned that they could disrupt the availability of consumer's favorite foods. 

During the time period the regulations were under consideration, the Grocery Manufacturers Association spent $2.6 million and the Food Marketing Institute spent $1.7 million on lobbying.  The groups said that the FDA was overstepping the authority granted by Congress under the new bioterrorism laws and that the proposed tracking system was "exorbitantly costly" and would not necessarily produce a better result.

If you aren't keeping track of the math, here is a summary:  The food industry spent over $4 million in 2003-2004 to avoid regulations it thought would be too costly which likely contributed to a disease outbreak in 2008 that cost them $250 million and counting.  And now it turns out that all the tomatoes dumped by consumers, grocery stores, and restaurants weren't even the thing making people sick!

Not surprisingly, the food industry now says it will agree to a better tracking system operated by the government - as long as they get to design it.

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