DeLauro, Slaughter ask CDC, FSIS about salmonella outbreak
October 18, 2013 | 12:10 AM
Reps. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., today asked the Centers for Disease Control and the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to explain their actions regarding the recent salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 400 people.
Slaughter is ranking member of the House Rules Committee, and DeLauro is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the CDC and a former chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
The outbreak has been linked to products from Foster Farms, a California chicken producer.
“We are particularly troubled that there was an investigation into an outbreak of salmonella Heidelberg that identified Foster Farms brand chicken as the most likely source of an outbreak beginning in 2012, but no action was taken and, tragically, a second outbreak occurred this year,” they wrote to CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who has the lead responsibility in the federal government for investigating causes of foodborne illnesses.
“An outbreak of foodborne illness on the scale of that reported by the CDC in July is undoubtedly disconcerting to the American public,” DeLauro and Slaughter, a microbiologist, wrote to USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen.
“A second outbreak emanating from the same company is wholly unacceptable,” they said. “It is FSIS’s core mission to prevent such outbreaks, as well as quickly and adequately respond to such incidents when they do occur, a regulatory responsibility that FSIS appears to have failed to meet in this case.”
Slaughter is ranking member of the House Rules Committee, and DeLauro is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the CDC and a former chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee.
The outbreak has been linked to products from Foster Farms, a California chicken producer.
“We are particularly troubled that there was an investigation into an outbreak of salmonella Heidelberg that identified Foster Farms brand chicken as the most likely source of an outbreak beginning in 2012, but no action was taken and, tragically, a second outbreak occurred this year,” they wrote to CDC Director Thomas Frieden, who has the lead responsibility in the federal government for investigating causes of foodborne illnesses.
“An outbreak of foodborne illness on the scale of that reported by the CDC in July is undoubtedly disconcerting to the American public,” DeLauro and Slaughter, a microbiologist, wrote to USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen.
“A second outbreak emanating from the same company is wholly unacceptable,” they said. “It is FSIS’s core mission to prevent such outbreaks, as well as quickly and adequately respond to such incidents when they do occur, a regulatory responsibility that FSIS appears to have failed to meet in this case.”
