Seafood Safety Addressed in GAO Report

February 14, 2001

Sens. Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) have released a General Accounting Office (GAO) report showing only 44% of seafood plants currently meeting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food safety requirements. They say the report details a lack of adequate food safety controls within the seafood industry. The report entitled "Federal Oversight of Seafood Does Not Sufficiently Protect Consumers" was requested by both senators last year.

"This report shows that FDA's seafood inspection system is still not doing the job," Harkin said. "Even though improvements have been made only 44% of seafood plants are meeting FDA's minimum standards, my question is what's happening with the other 56%? The bottom line is FDA' s inspection system doesn't adequately protect consumers."

"The United States has the safest food supply in the world. Americans should expect and demand the best food inspection methods and their comprehensive use. Significant progress has been made since science-based seafood inspection began in 1997. This report, however, suggests that improvements are necessary. FDA acknowledged areas in its science-based seafood inspection program that need to be strengthened and indicates that it has begun to address some problems," Lugar said. "The Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee will continue its oversight of food safety and will be following up with the Food and Drug Administration on this report."

FDA requires seafood plants to use the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety system to control food safety risks at seafood production facilities. The GAO study found that more than half of U.S. seafood plants posed serious food safety violations because of failure to implement HACCP properly. The study also criticized FDA's follow up procedures once a food safety violation has been discovered. According to the report even when inspectors identified significant violations, FDA did not reliably issue a warning letter in a timely manner, much less shut the plant down or take other action to ensure an effective HACCP system was in place.

The report also detailed other shortcomings in FDA's inspection system for both domestic and imported seafood. For domestic seafood, because companies are not required to register with FDA, the agency does not really know how many facilities should be inspected. For imported seafood, FDA relies mainly on paperwork from importers asserting compliance with FDA's HACCP requirements. However, according to GAO, "less than one-third of the importers FDA inspected had the required documentation to demonstrate compliance with the HACCP requirements."

Lugar is chairman and Harkin the ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.