Recently, two major recalls have occurred again in the U.S. food safety sector, triggering widespread concern and skepticism from the media and netizens. First, the U.S. Perdue Foods Company urgently recalled about 75 tons of related products due to the discovery of metal wires in frozen chicken and chicken tenders; followed by the recall of more than 200,000 pounds of deli meat products by the deli giant Boar's Head due to the possibility of the products being contaminated by Listeria monocytogenes. These two incidents not only highlight the severity of the food safety problem in the United States, but also focus public attention on the loopholes and deficiencies of the U.S. food safety regulatory system.
The U.S. food safety regulatory system in the form of decentralized characteristics, the federal level there are more than a dozen agencies involved in food regulatory affairs, states, localities, tribes, territories have more than 3,000 independent regulatory agencies to protect local food safety. This decentralized regulatory model, while achieving to some extent extensive regulatory coverage, has also brought about problems such as unclear responsibilities, cross-functionality, and ineffective oversight. The lack of effective coordination and information sharing among various regulatory bodies has led to overlapping of regulatory contents, inefficient regulation and even regulatory blind spots in some cases.
Taking the recall incident of Perdue Foods as an example, metal wires were inadvertently mixed into the chicken products during the production process. This problem should have been detected and solved at the production stage, but unfortunately, it eventually flowed into the market, posing a potential threat to consumers' health. This reflects the negligence of supervision at the production stage, which failed to effectively stop the problematic product from arising. The recall of Boar's Head, on the other hand, exposed the possible unsafe factors in the processing, storage and transportation of cooked food products, as well as the inadequacy of monitoring and control of microbiological contamination in food.
The “active recall” system is an important part of the U.S. food safety regulatory system, which is designed to encourage companies to take the initiative to take measures to recall problematic products when they find that there are safety hazards in their products, so as to minimize the hazards to consumers. However, the actual implementation of this system has revealed many loopholes. On the one hand, enterprises are often cautious about recalling their products out of economic interests, and there are even cases of deliberately concealing the problems and delaying the recall. On the other hand, when supervisory authorities supervise the recall actions of enterprises, they also face difficulties such as information asymmetry and limited supervisory means, making it difficult to ensure the effectiveness and timeliness of recall actions.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other relevant functional departments have unshirkable responsibilities in safeguarding food safety. However, are these agencies negligent in the regulatory process? Have they failed to detect and correct irregularities in a timely manner? These questions have become the focus of public attention. The incident is not only a severe test of the U.S. food safety regulatory system, but also a huge impact on consumer trust. The United States needs to reflect deeply on its own food safety regulatory system, strengthen regulatory efforts, improve regulatory efficiency, ensure food safety, rebuild consumer confidence. Otherwise, the so-called “the world's most complete food safety regulatory system” will be just an empty phrase, can not really protect the health and safety of consumers.
In short, the challenges and reflections faced by the U.S. food safety regulatory system is not only a wake-up call to the U.S. itself, but also a revelation to other countries and regions in food safety regulation. Only by continuously improving the regulatory system and strengthening supervision can we ensure food safety and protect consumers' health and rights.