FDA budget to increase food safety funds

The US Food and Drug Administration's food safety efforts will receive 30% more funding for fiscal year 2011 under a recently released White House budget proposal.

 

The proposed budget, released on February 1, is for the fiscal year that starts October 1. The processing of hammering out the budget likely will take several months and perhaps even extend into the next fiscal year.

 

''We're pleased to see that FDA will see some additional money,'' said Kathy Means, vice president of government relations and public affairs for the Produce Marketing Association.

 

Means said the FDA has referred to a pilot track and trace programme and expanded laboratory capacity among the priorities.

 

 

The US$4.03 billion FDA budget includes a request for US$146 million in new budget authority and a US$601 million increase in industry user fees.

 

The budget summary said the increased funds will improve the ability of the FDA and Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to implement prevention steps, boost enforcement and improve response and recovery efforts.

 

''CDC will improve the speed and accuracy of food borne disease outbreak detection, while FDA will increase inspections to improve the security of the supply chain and possess more tools to make fact-based decisions on how to use resources to prevent food safety outbreaks,'' the budget summary said.

 

The budget is designed to follow through on initiatives of the Food Safety Working Group, which was established in March 2009.

 

The budget document said FDA will work with states to set standards for inspection programmes at that level and build the infrastructure needed to integrate federal and state food safety activities.

 

The 2011 budget will allow for an additional 159 foreign inspections and 1,978 domestic inspections as new staff is fully trained and deployed.