Food Safety: Contaminated Food

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Food Safety, Food Safety:

A Briefing Paper for Senator Jones

Dear Senator Jones,

Imagine coming home to discover your child’s dead body. You wonder how this could have happened. Your daughter was always healthy and rarely ever got sick. All of a sudden, you spot the cantaloupes you bought and some pieces remaining in her hand; indeed, after the autopsy it was determined that your child died from tainted cantaloupes. Unfortunately, this was the case for 33 families in 2012 in Colorado. The cantaloupes were not inspected, and were contaminated by listeria, which caused the victims’ deaths. Food safety, the practice necessary to ensure the safety of food, is a major health issue that few Americans think about until someone becomes ill from contaminated food. However, concerns about food safety have grown as society has become more aware of foodborne illnesses. Likewise, the function of government in its citizens’ food consumption has remained a controversy since civilization first came to be. As food is such a necessity for survival, it is clear that government must have some role in inspecting food security to guarantee the viability of citizens. In this briefing, first I will explain the history of this issue, both pros and cons regarding food safety, what actions the government has taken, and lastly I will suggest that the government should not immensely invest in more programs for food safety, rather it should take a different approach and invest more on just the inspections of farms.

One major agency out of many, the U.S Food and Drug Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services (USDA), guarantees the safety and labeling of foods (“Pure Food and Drug Acts, Food and Drug Administration”). ...

... middle of paper ...

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“Pure Food and Drug Acts.” Issues & Controversies in American History. Infobase Publishing,

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Stupack, Bark. Are the Bush Administration's FDA Reforms Sufficient to Ensure the Safety of the

Nation's Food Supply? CONGRESSIONAL DIGEST, 1 Apr. 2008. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

"U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service." Gale Opposing Viewpoints

in Context. Detroit: Gale, 2014. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 19 Apr. 2014

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