U.S. Food Safety: Home-Grown Probl...(ices who concentrate on food issues with...),Health

"The FDA doesn't have anything like continuous oversight," Parish said. "The FSIS [Food Safety and Inspection Service, part of the USDA], on the other hand, has continuous oversight where an inspector has to physically be at the plant at least during part of the day."

Despite mounting criticism, federal regulators steadfastly defend their record.

"I think the agency is doing an excellent job, given the resource challenges," said Michael Rogers, director of the Office of Field Investigations at the FDA. "I would compare our track record to anyone's."

What about overlaps with the USDA?

"Both agencies have a major role to play with respect to public health protection," Rogers said. "I don't know that moving around boxes [shuffling responsibilities between agencies] is a starting point for discussion."

"I don't see redundancy as a negative," he added. "I can't see downsides to redundancies and some overlaps in responsibilities and regulations if it results in additional oversight and regulation for that industry."

A Patchwork of Responsibilities

Consider the peculiar way that federal oversight can work.

The FDA monitors the safety of frozen pizza -- unless that pizza has a pepperoni topping. Then the USDA takes over, according to a 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

The amount of a particular ingredient in a can of soup dictates whether that soup falls under the purview of the USDA or the FDA. If a canning facility produces soup containing meat or poultry, it is inspected daily by the USDA. But if the plant also produces soup containing beans or seafood, then the FDA inspects it every one to five years.

"As economies have developed, and there are more commercial food manufacturers and
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