How safe is your food? Public opinion divided on FDA's effectiveness

How safe is your food?

Public opinion divided on FDA's effectiveness

Although the American public feels a little better about the job the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is doing now than a year ago, about half still believes the agency isn’t doing enough to safeguard the country’s food and drugs, a new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll finds. When it comes to monitoring the safety and effectiveness of new prescription drugs, 47 percent of respondents believe the agency does a poor job — an improvement over the 58 percent disapproval rating noted in a similar poll last year.

As for food safety, 49 percent of Americans have a negative view of the job the FDA is doing, while 48 percent have a positive assessment.

Imported food safety, in particular, appears a focus of concern, with only 6 percent of respondents saying that the FDA’s oversight of imported foods is “excellent” and 21 percent saying it is “poor.”

Similarly, there’s doubt about the FDA’s ability to ensure the safety of prescription drugs manufactured abroad.

“Perceptions of drug safety have gone up and down,” said Humphrey Taylor, chairman of The Harris Poll. “I think what happens is that, as stories break about drug problems — and Vioxx comes to mind — those numbers go up. We seem to have recovered from the low figures of last year,” he added.

However, on the list of things people believe the agency should be looking at, “food safety emerges as by far the top priority as far as the public is concerned for the FDA,” Taylor said. That could reflect concern with a slew of recent food-borne illness outbreaks, including the recent peanut/salmonella scandal and another salmonella outbreak in 2008 that was eventually traced to tainted jalapeno peppers.

“Every time you get a food recall, spinach or tomatoes or any of those things, you get a huge blip in public opinion and people cut back on buying spinach and so on,” Taylor said. “Those kinds of stories on food safety and drug safety really do have a big impact.”

FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said her agency had not yet read the poll results and could not offer specific comments. But she said the FDA is working with the Obama administration on “new legislative approaches and also is embarking on an aggressive and proactive approach” to improve oversight of the U.S. food supply.

The new online survey, conducted in mid-April, queried a nationally representative sample of 2,495 adults aged 18 and over.

Another big worry for respondents: domestically made prescription drugs. Only 8 percent of poll respondents feel the agency is doing an “excellent” job of making sure new prescription drugs are safe and effective, or monitoring the safety of prescription drugs after they arrive on the market.

Similarly, only 11 percent believe the FDA does an “excellent” job of handling recalls of prescription drugs. Overall, 43 percent think the agency’s handling of recalls is “good,” 28 percent “fair,” and 12 percent “poor.”

“This shows there’s still a lot of concern out there about how the FDA does its job,” said Tony Corbo, senior lobbyist at Food & Water Watch, a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C.

More than half (56 percent) of those surveyed feel positively about how the FDA handles food recalls, while 40 percent feel negatively. Confidence about drug recalls was less robust.
Reflecting these concerns, a majority of respondents (59 percent) said they feel that food safety should be the FDA’s most important priority, followed by ensuring the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs (37 percent). The safety of imported food came in third at 30 percent.

FULL STORY: http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090504/LIFESTYLE/90501051