Institute for Food Laws and Regulations

Neal Fortin, Director of MSU's Institute for Food Laws and Regulations (IFLR), was interviewed by the New York Times and the Los Angeles radio station KNX News about last year's lead poisoning from cinnamon-flavored applesauce pouches which sickened hundreds of American children.

In the New York Times, Fortin said “It’s amazing, in a bad sense, what a catastrophic failure this was... Largely, the food supply regulatory system is based on an honor system.”

• Read the New York Times article "Lead-Tainted Applesauce Sailed Through Gaps in Food-Safety System" by Christina Jewett and Will Fitzgibbon.
• Listen to the KNX News interview here, ore read what he said, below.
• Link to the WanaBanana company's recall announcement on there FDA website.
• Learn how to avoid dangerous and costly mistakes with IFLR's online graduate course on the FSMA Foreign Supplier Verification Program with Scott Haskell this summer (May 13-June 27, 2024).

Here is what Neal Fortin said about the applesauce contamination case and the U.S. food safety system on KNX News Radio:

"One of the reasons that this could happen was that the ingredient supply chain is extended. Some of the ingredients were coming from Sri Lanka, they're going into South America, they're being processed there and then products are coming back into the U.S. In the system under the Food Safety Modernization act, the importers are supposed to double check the supply chain. But the longer the supply chain gets, of course the harder it is.

We had multiple layers of failure. The FDA doesn’t have the resources to do enough inspections or sampling. They weren’t holding the importers to the requirements of the law, and what I’m seeing is that a lot of importers are not doing the verification that is required under the law. And then facilities that manufacture food, even in other countries, that is going to be imported into the U.S. are required to have a food safety plan that equals what you do in the U.S. So, you had 3 levels of failure here. The importer was never expected to go back that far to Sri Lanka, but the food safety protection plan put in place in Ecuador should have included looking back through their suppliers."

"The good news is that most manufacturers really try. They want to produce a wholesome and a safe product. One of the things about our system is that it is really an honor system. Luckily for us most of them really do a good job. Companies that follow the law are looking back, they are doing a verification plan, they are looking at their food safety plans, they are looking at the risk, they are making sure they are taken care of. The problem comes up with the minority that don’t follow the law and are willing to put people at risk.

Some people say the market will take care of that, but we have all of recorded history telling us there will always be people who will exploit the system, including putting people at risk. In the Code of Hammurabi, the oldest written law that we have, if you were caught adulterating the food or the beer, they would put a millstone around your neck and thrown you into the Euphrates. We have historical record that all throughout recorded history you have to have a regulatory authority who is strong enough and vigilant enough to check to make sure that the minority of those that will abuse the system will get caught, and it sends a warning to the others not to do it too." 

"There is a new food safety position within the FDA, at least there is a recognition that something has to be done. Part of the problem is that Congress has to appropriate the funds and there’s a constant battle over funding the FDA enough. It sounds like a lot of money when you look at the total amount, but if you and I would just pay a dollar more in taxes we could have a strong FDA. But we don’t, we have a weak, starved FDA, and no matter what you do if you rearrange everything, you are still limited if you don’t have the resources. FDA does tend to do a very good job prioritizing the resources towards the highest risk, but that means you’re cutting out something that is lower risk too."

Here's a link to the WanaBanana company's recall announcement on there FDA website.

Read the New York Times article where Fortin is interviewed on the same topic, here.

Learn how to avoid dangerous and costly mistakes with IFLR's online graduate course on the FSMA Foreign Supplier Verification Rule with Scott Haskell this summer (May 13-June 27, 2024).

Neal Fortin also covers some of these issues in his online graduate course Food Laws & Regulations in the United States, offered each fall and spring semester.

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