Word: fda
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...second time in three weeks that the FDA had dared challenge the big food companies. The first target was Citrus Hill Fresh Choice orange juice, another P&G product. After more than a year of wrangling over the word "fresh" (the product is made from concentrate and is pasteurized), the FDA had U.S. marshals impound 24,000 half-gallon cartons of the juice at a suburban Minneapolis warehouse. P&G gave in within two days. Unilever subsidiary Ragu Foods, which since 1989 had been skirmishing over the same word on labels for its processed pasta sauce, soon dropped its fight...
...architect of the new FDA is David Kessler, 39, who became commissioner last December. Kessler is a far cry from the Rita Lavelle-style, wine-and- dine-with-the-industry regulators who reigned during the Reagan years. With a degree in medicine from Harvard and one in law from the University of Chicago, he understands health issues and knows how to devise and enforce tough regulations. In the early '80s he served as a consultant on FDA matters to Utah Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, who brought Kessler's talents to the attention of the Bush Administration. But the White House...
Food companies contend that the confusion about their labeling stems not from deception on their part but from the government's failure to issue clear guidelines for making nutritional and health claims. The FDA plans to set forth revised labeling rules next year. "Once these regulations are out," says John Cady, president of the National Food Processors Association, "industry will know clearly what the FDA expects and will certainly comply." Cady charges that Kessler's current "hunt-and-peck approach" of | targeting big companies is largely an effort to shine up the FDA's tarnished image...
...agency surely needs better public relations -- and much more. A report issued last week by an advisory panel to the Department of Health and Human Services concludes that the FDA is underfunded, understaffed and overwhelmed by its mandate, which ranges from approving drugs and monitoring the nation's blood supply to checking food imports and regulating the cosmetics industry. From 1979 to 1988, 23 laws were passed that broadened the FDA's responsibilities; at the same time, the agency lost 900 of its 8,100 employees...
That slide may finally be over. Congress has boosted the agency's budget by $150 million in the past two years, to $682 million for 1991, and the number of staff positions is up again to about 8,400. With that backing, Kessler hopes to strengthen the FDA in all areas. By picking on big food companies sensitive to publicity, he has made an astute start at establishing himself -- and re-establishing the FDA -- as the nation's top health...