CNN reported that producers are voluntarily recalling spinach. The FDA doesn’t have the authority to order a recall. So is there such a thing as an involuntary recall?
The best the FDA can do is seize contaminated spinach, but they must identify the source of the contamination first.
Another fine example of our nation’s food safety laws hard at work to protect industry.
2 Comments
September 18, 2006 at 8:41 pm
I think it’s more like: one local news station reports it, so there’s a local public hysteria, so one local retailer pulls all their spinach. Next thing you know it’s all over national news and if you don’t remove all your spinach, you must just want people to have e. coli. Or a lawsuit. Maybe I’m not even following what you were talking about. Grin.
September 18, 2006 at 10:16 pm
I think the announcement that the FDA made that all spinach is suspect is their way of forcing a recall even without the authority to do so. At this point, they’re just throwing their hands up in the air and saying ‘we don’t know where the bad spinach came from, so everybody’s going to suffer’ until someone comes forward. Even if someone doesn’t come forward, producers are going to have to show how they’re doing something to ensure that it doesn’t happen again– even if they’re just putting on a show.
What I hope will happen is that distributors will want to make a point of not all buying from the same producers and that they’ll become more forthright about where the produce is coming from and how it’s handled before it gets to the supermarket. It wouldn’t suck if stores started buying local and putting big labels on their produce bins showing where the produce came from. That way consumers know exactly where to complain if something happens. Plus, the outbreaks stay isolated in defined areas.