Boost for Food Safety

More than 9,000 Americans die each year from food-borne illness and at least 100,000 more contract a serious case of one of the illnesses generically known as “food poisoning.” These numbers are unacceptably high for a nation whose food supply is supposed to be the world’s safest.

On Monday, the Clinton administration proposed a number of measures to address the problem. The $43.2-million plan, which needs congressional approval, would strengthen inspections of food imports and provide for more inspectors for seafood. It includes $16.5 million to develop new tests to detect food-borne pathogens such as hepatitis and cyclo- spora, a parasite.

Fruits and vegetables would be among the burgeoning food imports inspected. The Los Angeles Unified School District got a scare last month when it was learned that as many as 9,000 students and school employees might have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus when they consumed a frozen strawberry dessert made from fruit grown in Mexico and processed in San Diego. Last year, dozens of children and adults in several states and Canada became ill after exposure to an especially nasty E. coli bacterium in unpasteurized apple juice, and one child died. The source of contamination has not been established in either instance.

The U.S. food supply travels a global and sometimes byzantine chain of growers, suppliers and processors. The system has been increasingly difficult to monitor under existing procedures and programs, which are spread out over three federal agencies. President Clinton raised the need for reform in a radio address in January. But without congressional support, the gaping holes in the nation’s food protection system could mean more sickness--and deaths.