Less than 40 percent of food recalled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration is recovered, according to a Governmental Accountability Office report released last month.
In 2003 two large food recalls were associated with eight deaths and 100 serious illnesses in 16 states. The Governmental Accountability Office blamed weaknesses in the USDA and FDA recall programs for the deaths and illness.
Cook County has its own inspection program, the Intergovernmental Retail Food Agreement Program. The program dispatches food inspectors to any establishment that serves food. Evanston does not participate in the program.
“Food recalls are voluntary, unlike other types of recalls in the toy or automotive industry,” said Jim Bloom, food program manager for the State of Illinois Department of Drugs and Dairies. “By law, the stores are not under obligation to remove the product from their shelves.”
Although recalls are voluntary, the State of Illinois Drugs and Dairies department encourages full compliance with any such request.
“If there is a serious problem, let’s say it’s Class 1 (the most serious), and we’re aware of it, we might embargo the goods or even seize them,” Bloom said. “But that is only in extreme cases.”
Most stores are eager to remove recalled items from shelves because any sickness could reflect poorly on their business.
Bob Pottinger, owner of Al’s Deli, 914 Noyes St., said he is extremely cautious when dealing with potentially dangerous food.
“We haven’t had any official recalls yet,” Pottinger said. “But our philosophy is ‘when in doubt, throw it out.’ Anyone who wants to stay in business wouldn’t dare keep any questionable food on their shelves.”
Once a food product is recalled, the Evanston Department of Health and Human Services tries to locate the stores that carry it.
“We have three or four alert networks that tell us of the problem, then we take the news to the community,” said Jay Terry, director of Health and Human Services in Evanston. “For example, there was candy from Mexico that contained lead that was recently recalled, and we were able to track down some left on the Chicago side of Howard Street.”
USDA and FDA response time is another serious problem. The last six investigations conducted by the FDA took 31 days to complete.
After stores are aware of the recall, one of the biggest challenges is locating and alerting the customers who have already purchased the product.
“Our first instinct is to protect the customers,” said Kristi Eftes, communications manager for Wild Oats Natural Marketplace, which owns the Whole Foods location at 1111 Chicago Ave. “We have all the cell numbers for the upper level managers of our stores, and we call them immediately. Then we might try to alert our customers through the media, e-mails or phone numbers given on checks.”
Even with some stores’ cooperation, the accountability office said the USDA and FDA should have the same recall authority as toy, heart pacemaker and automobile regulators.
The added authority would require companies to notify the agency when they have distributed a potentially unsafe product.
The USDA and FDA also would have the power to order a recall, establish recall requirements and impose fines if a company was in violation of the rules.
In response to the report, the National Advisory Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection began holding public meetings, starting Tuesday, to discuss how to better anticipate and protect against food hazards.
Reach Whitney L. Becker at [email protected].
