A recent report in Food Safety documents concern in the Republic of Slovakia over their system of food safety.  An audit by a government organization (analogous to the U.S. Government Accountability Office) found that control over the food chain was fragmented with overlap among agency jurisdictions and defects in law relating to the control of food safety.  There is apparently no cohesive system for sharing information relating to violations.

The Vice-president of the Supreme Audit Office commented that the “lack of a comprehensive view of safety in the entire supply chain could harm the targeting effectiveness of official food controls.”  The official with blinding insight noted, “The final effect of the integrated system of official food control should be a more systematic transparent and comprehensive performance of official controls throughout the food chain minimizing the space of so-called gray zones.”

We have seen this movie before.  If the Supreme Audit Office evaluated the U.S. system they would find similar fragmentation, overlap between the USDA, and the Department of Health and Human Services and their subsidiary agencies the FSIS, FDA, CDC among others. This is characterized by the so-called pizza enigma. FSIS has jurisdiction if the pizza has a meat topping, but with only cheese the FDA calls the shots.

The conclusion of the audit conducted in Slovakia was that “the current division of competencies was not sustainable, and the country should look into having one body overseeing food control.”

EGG-NEWS has consistently advocated for a single food safety and nutrition agency incorporating the current responsibilities assigned to the FDA and the USDA.