The Food and Drug Administration is supposed to put safety standards in place and investigate and respond to outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. But a recent investigation from Politico titled “The FDA’s Food Failure,” revealed significant structural leadership issues and found that the food arm of the agency – the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition – has repeatedly failed to create regulations or respond in a timely manner to a wide range of food safety, health, and nutrition issues.

We speak with the reporter who worked on that investigation, Helena Bottemiller Evich, Senior food and agricultural reporter for Politico.

Here's a comment from the FDA from an FDA spokesperson: 

The FDA has accomplished a tremendous amount in the last 10 years to make the American food supply as safe as it’s ever been. At the FDA we are harnessing new technology, data management, and strategies to improve our ability to identify and interdict unsafe food products to build a New Era of Smarter Food Safety. By advancing our scientific capabilities to detect pathogens and other contaminants, we are now detecting more outbreaks and we are making real progress on reducing toxic elements in the food supply. On April 27, 2022 we issued draft guidance to industry to help reduce the levels of lead in juices—which is good for everyone, but in particular young children, and as part of our Closer to Zero action plan, we expect to issue additional guidance on lead action levels for foods commonly eaten by babies and young children later this year.