Letter to The Honorable Andrew von Eschenbach, Commissioner, Food and Drug Administration

Letter

May 9, 2007

The Honorable Andrew von Eschenbach
Commissioner
Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane
Rockville, Maryland 20857

Dear Dr. von Eschenbach:

Thank you for attending today's meeting with the People's Republic of China's Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong to discuss how to improve the food safety relationship between the United States and China. Thank you also for providing us with the latest developments on the ongoing investigation into the recall of pet and human food products contaminated with melamine.

This recall has illustrated many significant inadequacies in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) ability to protect consumers and our food supply from hazardous products that originate overseas. Food imports now account for approximately 13 percent of the average American diet, including significant shares of fruits, juices, meat, and fish and shellfish.

While FDA budgets have not kept pace with the increasing volume of agricultural imports that enter the United States, we believe that existing tools at FDA's disposal would allow the agency to pursue actions that would improve the safety and soundness of food imports entering the United States.

Specifically, we encourage you to make it a priority to enter into cooperative agreements with our trading partners, including letters of intent and comprehensive Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs). It is our hope that these agreements will facilitate the establishment of standards and quality controls for our trading partners, as well as promote dialogue and technical assistance. Ultimately, these cooperative agreements will provide U.S. inspectors with easier access to foreign facilities, and expedite information sharing and cooperation during product recalls.

Currently, the FDA lacks these types of agreements with some of our largest volume trading partners. For example, only two MOUs involving China are in effect, and those concern standards for ceramic ware imported from China. Given that the United States imports approximately $2.2 billion of agricultural products from China annually and considering that manufacturers in China recently have been implicated in several serious contaminations of food and drug products, an MOU between the United States and China should be made a top priority. We are alarmed by recent media accounts that the highly toxic substance diethylene glycol has been marketed by Chinese firms as glycerine, which has resulted in mass poisonings in various parts of the world.

Beyond MOUs, the recent pet food contamination has revealed significant gaps in the FDA's statutory authorities to protect our food supply from potentially hazardous imports. We request that, within 20 days of receiving this correspondence, the agency create a list of gaps in FDA's current authorities that hinder it from adequately regulating imports.

Thank you very much for your prompt response to these questions.

Sincerely,
Richard J. Durbin
U.S. Senator
Assistant Majority Leader

Rosa L. DeLauro
Chairwoman
House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies

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