WASHINGTON - As the government struggles to trace another bacterial outbreak, this time in tomatoes, congressional investigators are attacking federal health officials for failing to follow up on recent promises to improve food safety.
The Salmonella outbreak in tomatoes has sickened 167 people in 17 states and triggered a new round of criticism of the government's food safety efforts, which have been under attack for months after contamination in spinach, lettuce, peanut butter and pet food.
"It just epitomizes the problem," said Rep. Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who will chair a House hearing this morning on the Food and Drug Administration's food protection plans. "What has it taken for them to realize it's a problem? A couple of outbreaks."
At the hearing, the Government Accountability Office will report that the FDA hasn't taken steps to begin implementing the food safety plan it issued last November in response to a string of food scares.
"As foodborne illness outbreaks continue, FDA is missing valuable opportunities to reassure Congress and the public that it is doing all it can to protect the nation's food supply," said the report by the investigative arm of Congress.
The latest outbreak is the 13th involving tomatoes since 1990. Investigators have ruled out growers in seven countries and 24 states, including Maryland, giving consumers the all-clear to eat tomatoes from those places. No one from Maryland has been reported sick.
The likely source of the tainted tomatoes could be among growers in Mexico and parts of Florida, because they supplied them to the United States during April and May, when people reported falling ill, according to Dr. Douglas Powell, a food safety specialist at Kansas State University. Tomatoes from counties in northern and southern Florida are safe, according to federal health officials.
Dr. David Acheson, the FDA's associate commissioner for foods, said yesterday that the hunt for the source is "getting very close." Still, officials were forced to explain that delays were caused by the need to review medical files of the sick, pore over tomato supply records and investigate growers from Mexico to central Florida.
"Tomatoes don't typically show up with a bar code stamped on them," Acheson said.
Dr. Ian Williams, chief of the Outbreak Net team at the Centers for Disease Control, urged patience, because "the chances of us finding a contaminated tomato sitting in somebody's refrigerator is very low."
