Understanding Government

Eddie Gehman Kohan writes on Obama Foodorama (try reading “foodorama” ten times to yourself) about the Food & Drug Adminstration’s latest initiative to open up the food recall process to citizens.  The FDA database may not be blessed with the catchiest name (“Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts”), but it might end up saving your health, time, and money.  It allows you to search by food item, by infection or illness that a contaminated or otherwise dangerous food product can cause, and by store.  My searches using terms like “salmonella”, “broccoli”, “sam’s club”, “ham”, “hillandale” and “wegmans” all turned up relatively recent product recalls, with specifics gleaned from company press releases.   The database might not reach out and stop you from buying something that could make you sick, but it’s a good way to check your fridge and shelves at home if you’ve heard rumors about a recall.

The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe looks at the Consumer Product Safety Commission one year after Congress granted CPSC more money and power to set product safety standards. O’Keefe reports that recalls of dangerous products are down slightly this year compared to last year. That’s good to know — but what is it supposed to mean? It could mean that the agency is less aggressive now about recalling unsafe toys, furniture and gagdets — or it could mean, more encouragingly, that manufacturers are making fewer dangerous products.

One way to solve this riddle is the implementation of a national, public database that records product-related incidents, injuries and deaths. This was a centerpiece of Congress’s overhaul of CPSC — O’Keefe only reports that the agency is putting the “finishing touches” on the database.