Myth #1: If FDA tests/rejects something then there must be a problem with it The FDA tests things all the time, even if there is not a problem with the shipment. The FDA uses Import Alerts, which are country or industry-wide notices that flag shipments due to prior problems, even if the problem does not actually appear in the current shipment. The FDA refuses countless shipments which might be just fine simply because they come from a region that is on Import Alert. This occurs because FDA only needs the “appearance of a violation” to refuse or reject an imported shipment.
Myth #2: If FDA is not testing something then it must be fine The FDA is not growing in resources at the same rate as the amount of imports coming into the United States. The FDA can’t possibly test everything they would like to simply due to how they assign their resources. If the FDA isn’t testing something that doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem.
Myth #3: If a pesticide is illegal in one food, then it’s not in any of my other foods The FDA isn’t in charge of establishing pesticide tolerances. For many foods the EPA has no published limit for pesticides while in others there is an established EPA tolerance. So a pesticide at any level could be illegal in 1 type of food but be allowable (at substantially higher concentrations) in another.
Myth #4: It’s better to test all the shipments of Orange Juice immediately It’s not better to implement a blanket testing strategy “just to be on the safe side.” Border delays, increased costs and unnecessary fear result from implementing (and broadcasting) a universal testing plan. A risk-based strategy that focuses first on the country of origin where the problem started and then expanding to other sources would make more sense where there is no health risk associated with the contaminant.
Myth #5: Every importer who is not FDA compliant is not safe Chances are that many products you have in your pantry or fridge are not FDA compliant in one way or another. FDA compliance covers everything from the size of the “nutrition facts” font to the claims on a product’s website to the standard operating procedures in a manufacturing facility. Many of these compliance issues are seemingly technical but nearly everyone violates a compliance issue at some point. But there’s a big difference between being out of compliance with the size of your ingredients font versus spreading a dangerous foodborne illness on your food product. Here, some OJ has been found to contain a very small (parts per billion) amount of a pesticide – but the same chemical is permitted on other fruits at concentrations in the parts per million (a far greater amount).
Myth #6: The FDA only detains shipments that have food safety violations As stated previously, the FDA can’t possibly stay on top of food safety inspections for all the imports coming into the United States. Therefore they will detain any shipment with the mere appearance of a food safety violation. In other words, if there’s a chance your shipment has a food safety problem then it’s going to be held and inspected just as if it was clear that there was a problem.
Myth #7: If a product says “Product of USA” then all of its ingredients are from the USA Just because your favorite food says “Product of USA” doesn’t mean that all the ingredients in that food are of US origin. Companies now source raw materials from all over the world. Yet in many cases, determining the country of origin on a food product depends upon where the product is cooked/processed/manufactured.
Myth #8: If a product has a USA address listed on the label then it’s made in the USA Wrong. FDA rules require food labels to declare the manufacturer, packer OR distributor. Just because a product has an address on the box that’s from the United States, it doesn’t mean anything in that box is from the United States. An American company from Duluth, Minnesota could be selling you a product with ingredients from India, Morocco and Brazil and that was manufactured in Spain.
Myth #10: The EPA will stop any shipment coming into the USA with illegal pesticides The EPA can’t stop any shipments coming into the United States. It has no enforcement power in this area. It can only establish the tolerance levels for pesticides in food and create acceptable standards for things like water. The FDA is the agency responsible for detaining, examining and refusing shipments into the United States that appear to contain illegal pesticides or pesticides that exceed EPA tolerances.
Bottom Line: In the digital age when news moves faster than our ability to critically assess it’s content, important elements of a story can be lost, context can be minimized and meaningful chunks of insight dropped out. This is often what happens during an apparent food safety crisis or when a sudden scare emerges related to a specific food or country. It’s hard to get the full story in context when you’re assaulted with reactionary dialogue and ratings-hungry news reporting. If you look closely at the myths mentioned above you’ll notice that there are actually only 9. Case in point.
