The Food and Drug Administration claims that the company Basic Food Flavors has knowingly sold vegetable protein laced with salmonella. The Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton reports that a food maker who purchased products from Basic Food Flavors tipped off the FDA and the agency subsequently inspected the Food Flavors plant. But why did federal regulators wait until after the dangerous vegetable protein was discovered to inspect the offending plant? Well, because of the U.S. Senate. "Legislation that would require companies to take measures to prevent contamination was overwhelmingly passed by the House last year," Layton writes,  "but has been held up in the Senate."

By Marci Greenstein National Institutes of Health chief, Dr. Frances Collins was talking up his agency’s partnership with the Food and Drug Administration on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show last week.  The move is intended to speed up the process for getting drugs from laboratories to the marketplace.  What’s surprising is that this collaboration hasn't happened sooner.  How often have we heard about patients desperate to get drugs that are successful in clinical trials but are moving at a snail’s pace through the FDA’s regulatory maze?

By Marci Greenstein As anyone who has seen the movie “The Graduate” will tell you, the word “plastics” was once seen as the gateway to an exciting new world of opportunities.  But nowadays plastics -- more specifically, the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) in plastics -- strike fear into the ...

The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder has an interesting look at Michelle Obama's announced push to end childhood obesity. I am somewhat sympathetic to the view that government warnings about the "obesity epidemic" can be seen as paternalistic and invasive. However, the ...

The Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton reports that Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg wants to make the "nutrition facts" box on food products more informative. And she wants to set national standards for nutrition labels so you can't ...

The Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton reports on the under-covered topic of what the Food and Drug Administration and Consumer Product Safety Commission have been up to in the Obama administration. George W. Bush and a Republican Congress eviscerated funding for both regulatory agencies and Bush appointed members to FDA ...

Andrew von Eschenbach, the last Bush administration Food and Drug Agency Commissioner, and four New Jersey members of Congress inappropriately pressured FDA scientists to approve a patch for injured knees back in December, reports the New York Times' Gardiner Harris and David M. Halfbinger. Here's the good news: the ...

The Justice Dept. has made a record $2.3 billion settlement with pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer for false advertising, reports the Washington Post's Carrie Johnson. It's the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history and it's for this kind of behavior: The Pfizer unit Pharmacia & Upjohn pleaded guilty to a single felony ...

The Washington Post's Lyndsey Layton gives a round-up of the food safety bill that passed the House yesterday that would expand the Food and Drug Administration's powers, especially the ability to more frequently inspect farmers and food processors. Layton reports it to be the most consequential FDA bill since ...

Jane Zhang of the Wall Street Journal reports on the Obama administration's plan to improve food safety:

A White House panel, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, is shifting the focus of food ...