FDA Plans to Close Half its Labs

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration would be unable to ensure the nation's food safety if a plan to close half of its testing laboratories goes through as suggested, a House panel was told Tuesday.

The agency has come under increased scrutiny in recent months because of a succession of well-publicized problems with food, including peanut butter contaminated with salmonella, spinach contaminated with E. coli and fish imported from China that was found to have traces of illegal antibiotics.

In testimony Tuesday before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, congressional investigators criticized the reorganization plan and said they doubted the FDA's ability to police food imports.

But FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach said the closures would “bring the FDA laboratory infrastructure into the 21st century. It's going to be very painful, but we are not closing labs with the idea of eliminating functionality."

Officials said importers go “port shopping” — sending food to different labs on purpose to avoid inspectors who are more stringent in their testing.

Importers also will describe certain products differently to get past regulators. For example, when an alert was issued for toothpaste contaminated with diethylene glycol, importers packaged the same toothpaste with a toothbrush and called the entire package as a toothbrush to avoid more rigorous inspection.

Read the full Los Angeles Times story here.