is what is an acceptable reason for applying the law differently to persons in similar situations.
Privacy Rights
Although privacy right objections are frequently made against public health laws—such as immunization, fluoridation, and compulsory HIV testing—the argument is less common against food laws. The seminal case on privacy rights is Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965), where a Connecticut law prohibited the prescribing of contraceptives and their use by any person, including married couples. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Connecticut statute unconstitutional. In the main opinion, Justice William O. Douglas laid out the basis of a constitutional right to privacy. The constitutional right to privacy has been applied by the Supreme Court only in situations involving the personal intimacies of the home, the family, marriage, motherhood, procreation, and child rearing. Efforts to expand the right of privacy to less intimate areas as a basis for invalidating public health and safety laws have not succeeded.
1.5 AGENCY JURISDICTION
Federal responsibility for the direct regulation of food in the United States has primarily been delegated to the FDA and the USDA. However, a number of other federal agencies become involved, depending on the type of food and the type of activity to be regulated. Although the involvement with food with some of these agencies is less direct than that of FDA and USDA, their roles are neither unimportant nor necessarily small.
| THUMBNAIL COMPARISON OF AGENCY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR FOOD | |
| Agency | Responsibility |
| Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | Drinking waterPesticide residues |
| Food and Drug Administration (FDA) | Food (but not meat)Drug (OTC and prescriptions)Dietary supplementsCosmeticsMedical devicesBottled waterSeafoodWild game (“exotic” meat)Eggs in the shell |
| Federal Trade Commission (FTC) | Advertising |
| Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) | Alcohol |
| U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | Raw vegetables gradingRaw fruit gradingMeatsPoultryEggs, processing, and grading |
The remainder of this chapter presents an overview of principal federal regulatory organizations responsible for food regulation47 along with a summary of the major federal statutes.
1.5.1 Food and Drug Administration48 (FDA)
Oversees
All domestic and imported food sold in interstate commerce, including shell eggs, but not meat and poultry.
Bottled water.
Beverages with less than 7 percent alcohol, but malt beverages only if less than 0.5 percent alcohol.
Shell eggs and egg containing products that do not meet USDA’s definition of “egg product.” Egg washing, sorting, packing.49
All fish, except catfish.
Food Safety Role
Food safety laws governing domestic and imported food, except meat and poultry, are enforced in a number of ways by:
Inspecting food production establishments and food warehouses.
Collecting and analyzing samples for physical, chemical, and microbial contamination.
Reviewing safety of food and color additives before marketing.
Reviewing animal drugs for safety to animals that receive them, and humans who eat food produced from the animals.
Monitoring safety of animal feeds used in food‐producing animals.
Developing model codes and ordinances, guidelines and interpretations, and working with states to implement them.
Establishing good food manufacturing practices and other production standards, such as plant sanitation, packaging requirements, and hazard analysis and critical control point programs.
Working with foreign governments to ensure safety of certain imported food products.
Requesting manufacturers to recall unsafe food products and monitoring those recalls.
Taking appropriate enforcement actions.
Educating industry and consumers on safe food‐handling practices.
1.5.2 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Food Safety Role
Investigates with local, state, and other federal officials sources of foodborne disease outbreaks.
Maintains a nationwide system of foodborne disease surveillance.
Develops and advocates public health policies to prevent foodborne diseases.
Conducts research to help prevent foodborne illness.
For more information: www.cdc.gov
1.5.3 USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS)
Oversees
Domestic and imported meat and poultry and related products, such as meat‐ or poultry‐containing stews, pizzas, and frozen foods.
Processed egg products (generally liquid, frozen, and dried pasteurized egg products).
Catfish.
Food Safety Role
The Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA), the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA), and the Egg Products Inspection Act (EPIA), which regulate meat, poultry, and egg products, are enforced by:
Inspecting food animals for diseases before and after slaughter.
Inspecting meat and poultry slaughter and processing plants.
Inspecting “egg product” processing plants (egg breaking and pasteurizing operations).50
With USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMA), monitoring and inspecting processed egg products.
Collecting and analyzing samples of food products for microbial and chemical contaminants and infectious and toxic agents.
Establishing production standards for use of food additives and other ingredients in preparing and packaging meat and poultry products, and for plant sanitation, thermal processing, and other processes.
Ensuring all foreign meat and poultry processing plants exporting