Food Safety and Quality

In the past, the introduction of technologies like pasteurization, vitamin fortification, and refrigeration vastly improved food quality and safety. Today's new food technologies hold similar promise but have been accompanied by fears of their unpredictable effects on human health and the environment. Among the most important of these innovations are (1) new biotechnology or genetic engineering; (2) novel macro ingredients--food additives intended to replace major dietary components, such as fats; (3) functional foods--food substances designed to lower the risk or delay the onset of some diseases; and (4) new types of packaging for foods. GAO concludes that because the existing legislative guidance for food and food ingredients predates today's new food technologies and the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) application of this guidance has been controversial, now may be the time to revisit the regulatory framework for food and food ingredients. A formal review of this framework could yield innovative strategies for striking the optimum regulatory balance between protecting consumers' health and fostering development. A review could also evaluate the adequacy of FDA's enforcement authority and resources to meet its legal responsibilities.

GAO found that: (1) in response to changes in consumer demographics and dietary preferences, the food industry has developed new foods and food ingredients and new methods of producing, processing, preserving, and packaging foods; (2) FDA has applied existing regulations and monitoring policies to new food technology products, conducted and sponsored research, and added new quality and safety oversight staff in response to new food technologies; (3) FDA response to new food technologies has resulted in several controversial and unanswered scientific and regulatory issues, including whether the existing regulatory framework for food and food ingredients is adequate for ensuring the safety of new food technologies and FDA enforcement efforts are adequate to oversee new technologies introduced into the marketplace; and (4) a review of the existing FDA regulatory framework could identify innovative strategies for protecting consumers' health, fostering new food technology development, and evaluating the adequacy of FDA enforcement resources.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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