— OPINION–
Home Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), Ranking Member Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Subcommittee on Health Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and Ranking Member Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and Ranking Member Kathy Castor (D-FL) composed to Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf to ask for an instruction concerning the possible deliberate contamination of applesauce pouches.
BACKGROUND:
- On Nov. 9, 2023, the FDA revealed that WanaBana USA had willinglyremembered3 applesauce brand names– Weis, WanaBana, and Schnucks–“due to reports of raised levels of lead.” Consequently, on January 5, 2024, the FDA revealed that its screening of the applesauce pouches and cinnamon gathered from the production facilitiy had actually likewise discovered chromium. applesauce
- In adeclarationthe FDA’s Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods, Jim Jones, showed that current lead contamination in applesauce pouches might have been a deliberate, financially determined act by a foreign provider of cinnamon for the remembered items.
- Since Jan. 8, 2024, the FDA hadgotten87 validated complaints/adverse occasion reports connected to the remembered item.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported an overall of 321 cases from 38 various states.
- Of those 321 cases,reportsrecommend more than 60 kids under the age of 6 in the United States have actually checked favorable for lead poisoning.
- Kids in this age variety are moreproneto lead poisoning, that makes the Committee’s issues about deliberate item adulteration along the worldwide supply chain especially immediate.
CRUCIAL LETTER EXCERPT:
“Though the FDA has in the previous raised issues about unacceptably high levels of lead in some child food, current occasions raise whether more can be done to avoid and identify illegal food contamination. The Committee urgently demands an in-depth instruction on the FDA’s suspicion of deliberate lead contamination in applesauce pouches, especially the actions carried out for its examination and procedures for future avoidance. It is vital to comprehend the FDA’s techniques for finding and resolving deliberate contamination in the food supply chain offered the minimal authority your firm has more than polluted cinnamon from abroad, which was determined as the possible source of this problem.”
The bipartisan Committee leaders asked for an instruction no behind February 2, 2024, and asked for that the following subjects ought to be covered:
- A timeline of occasions causing the discovery of lead contamination in the 3 applesauce brand names noted above.
- How did the FDA figure out that the adulteration of raw cinnamon may have been deliberate?
- How is the FDA teaming up with global partners, especially Ecuadorian authorities, to examine this concern completely?
- How is the FDA working together with domestic partners, consisting of state departments of health, to examine this problem completely?
- What actions have been required to identify if other foods have been infected as an outcome of this supply chain vulnerability?
- How, if at all, does the FDA’s procedure for finding lead contamination in food vary for foods produced locally from food produced abroad?
- Given that 2020, what has the FDA done to recognize lead-contaminated foods and avoid them from reaching racks?
- Considering that 2020, the number of recalls has the FDA provided associated to lead polluted foods? Of those, please define the number of were associated with contamination items produced in America and the number of were associated with contamination abroad.
- What are the FDA’s abilities within its existing authorities to boost tracking and evaluation procedures to much better identify and avoid deliberate acts of lead contamination along the supply chain, consisting of globally, and what strategies does the FDA need to utilize those authorities?
- What extra resources or authorities are required to much better spot and avoid deliberate acts of lead contamination along the supply chain, consisting of along worldwide supply chains?
- Will the FDA dedicate to supplying the Committee with rolling updates on the status of the examination, consisting of findings connected to the suspected global contamination?
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