{"id":25976,"date":"2024-04-12T06:10:29","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T11:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25976"},"modified":"2024-04-12T06:10:34","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T11:10:34","slug":"fda-head-calls-on-congress-to-pass-mandatory-testing-for-lead-in-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=25976","title":{"rendered":"FDA head calls on Congress to pass mandatory testing for lead in food"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The head of the Food and Drug Administration urged Congress on Thursday to pass legislation mandating that food manufacturers test for lead in products<\/a> imported to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Robert Califf\u2019s comment was in response to a question from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, during a hearing<\/a> that touched on the FDA’s response to issues including lead-contaminated cinnamon applesauce pouches, which have\u2002sickened hundreds of children<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The applesauce pouches, from Florida-based company WanaBana, were recalled in the fall after they were found to have high lead levels. The pouches were imported from Ecuador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Califf said the FDA oversees products from about 275,000 registered manufacturing facilities across the U.S. and abroad. Due to budget limitations, the agency often has to rely on the food manufacturers themselves to do their own testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most times they do a good <\/strong>job, ensuring the products are tested, he said; sometimes they don\u2019t. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the case of cinnamon applesauce, if there had been mandatory testing, when it got imported into the U.S. from Ecuador, the stores that were selling it probably would have picked it up at that point,\u201d Califf said, noting that there is no federal requirement for testing for lead in foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the way the drug system works,\u201d he added. \u201cThe manufacturers of drugs have to test every batch\u201d for possible contamination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Complicating matters is that the FDA doesn’t currently set limits on heavy metals in most foods. Only a handful, including chocolate candy and sugar-based candy<\/a>, have specific lead limits. In 2022, the agency introduced draft guidelines for lead limits in juice<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Califf’s comments come two days after an investigation from Consumer Reports<\/a>, an advocacy group, found high levels lead in certain Lunchables products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is now calling on the federal government to remove Lunchables from the national free and reduced-price school lunch program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA would need Congress to enact legislation to give the agency the authority to impose mandatory testing, Califf said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt FDA, we’re referees,\u201d he added. \u201cYou all in Congress actually write the rule books.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nbcnews<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 The head of the Food and Drug Administration urged Congress on Thursday to pass legislation mandating that food manufacturers test for lead in products imported to the United States. Dr. Robert Califf\u2019s comment was in response to a question from Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, during […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25977,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5784],"tags":[3043,27788,27787,5200,7493],"class_list":["post-25976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-fda","tag-food-manufacturers","tag-lead-content-testing","tag-products","tag-requirements"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25976"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25978,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25976\/revisions\/25978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}