WASHINGTON — Top federal officials sought to reassure Americans on Monday that the food supply was well protected against a bioterrorism attack, as the government issued a new regulation to help disease detectives track the source and destination of food.
"I believe firmly that we have a good handle on food importation, and also on the production of food ... with respect to intentional or accidental adulteration," said Lester M. Crawford, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.
The agency issued the fourth in a series of regulations to improve the policing of domestic and imported foods. The new rule creates industry record-keeping requirements that, in the event of an outbreak, will help officials track suspect food to its source and halt distribution.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson set off alarms Friday. During a news conference where he announced his resignation, Thompson said he worried about a bioterrorism attack on the food supply "every single night."
Thompson softened his comments Monday.
"There is more work to do yet, but our nation is now more prepared than ever before to protect the public against threats to the food supply," he said in a statement that praised the FDA's new rule.
Some experts said Thompson did the public a favor Friday by candidly pointing out a glaring vulnerability, but others noted that although it was theoretically possible to carry out a bioterrorism attack on the food supply, it would be difficult to do.
Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said FDA inspectors needed to check a greater share of food imports and be armed with the legal authority to inspect processing centers and farms abroad.
The FDA inspects about 2% of food imports.
"The FDA is dramatically short-staffed and underfunded when it comes to managing its mandate to ensure food safety," DeWaal said. "The U.S. is falling behind the rest of the world when it comes to our food safety structure."
Part of the problem, she said, is that responsibility for the oversight of imported food is divided between the FDA and the Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for meat and poultry. Agriculture inspectors check about 20% of imported meat. They also travel overseas to inspect foreign facilities and evaluate the food safety systems of other countries.
