United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-08-17 monographic deposited born digital 52 p. GA 1.13:RCED-00-195 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195 P0b002ee18038e98a f:rc00195 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195 RCED-00-195 Contaminated foods Health hazards Economic analysis Consumer protection Food industry Food inspection E. coli Bacteria CDC/FDA/USDA Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on voluntary food recall programs, focusing on: (1) the number of food recalls documented by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 1984, and of those, the number associated with outbreaks of foodborne illnesses; (2) for recalls associated with such outbreaks, the extent to which USDA and FDA identified the cause of the outbreak and how the product became contaminated; (3) the extent to which companies delayed or did not comply with USDA- or FDA-requested recalls; and (4) the economic impact of recalls on affected companies, to the extent identifiable.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) USDA and FDA documented more than 3,700 food recalls from the mid-1980s through 1999; (2) USDA, which generally maintains its data by calendar year, identified 515 recalls of fresh and processed meat and poultry from calendar year 1984 through 1999; (3) FDA, which began compiling such data electronically in 1986, identified 3,248 recalls of other foods from fiscal year (FY) 1986 through FY 1999; (4) neither agency has tracked whether recalls were associated with outbreaks of foodborne illnesses over those time periods; (5) however, USDA, according to its electronic recall files since 1992 and its staff's recollections, identified 12 recalls from 1988 through 1999 that were associated with outbreaks of foodborne illnesses; (6) likewise, FDA, according to its staff's recollections and data on illness outbreaks that it has collected since FY 1997, identified 49 recalls for 1997 through 1999 that were associated with outbreaks of foodborne illnesses; (7) USDA and FDA were able to identify a specific contaminant for each of the 61 recalls they considered to be associated with an outbreak--in total, the agencies believe strains of five bacteria and two viruses were responsible; (8) however, the agencies generally were unable to determine how the food became contaminated; (9) according to USDA and FDA officials, efforts to determine the cause of contamination are generally not successful because so much time passes--up to several weeks or months--before an illness is linked to a specific food; (10) recently implemented systems by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track foodborne illnesses could reduce that lag time and may improve the agencies' ability to determine points of contamination; (11) both agencies believe that companies have generally initiated recalls without delays--either on their own initiative or in response to requests to voluntarily do so; (12) neither USDA nor FDA compiles information on the economic impact of recalls on affected companies; (13) similarly, the food industry associations GAO contacted do not collect this information; (14) however, according to food industry officials, recalls can have a significant economic impact on affected companies through lost sales and food retrieval costs; (15) the extent of this impact depends on such factors as the amount and value of the food recalled, its location in the distribution process, and the severity of the health risk; and (16) in addition, following a recall, consumers may stop buying a company's products or switch to another company's brand for future purchases. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195.pdf GAO/RCED-00-195 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-00-195 Letter Report GAO/RCED-00-195; Food Safety: Actions Needed by USDA and FDA to Ensure That; Contaminated foods Health hazards Economic analysis Consumer protection Food industry Food inspection E. coli Bacteria CDC/FDA/USDA Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network