Obama budget would shutter USDA catfish inspection program
Apr. 11, 2013 David Bennett
President Obama?s $3.77 trillion 2014 budget claims savings of more than $25 billion the first year and that it will slash the deficit $2 trillion over a decade. The White House says it will largely achieve those savings through cutting waste, closing tax loopholes, and shuttering duplicative government programs.
Advocates of the U.S. catfish industry are not happy with the Obama budget, which calls for the abolishment of a yet-to-be-implemented USDA-FSIS (Food Safety and Inspection Service) catfish inspection regime.
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"CFA supports USDA catfish inspections because we know that the Food and Drug Administration provides insufficient safeguards for the American consumer. By FDA's own admission, they inspect a shockingly low percentage of the seafood coming into the United States."
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?Well, if someone is able to get 99.8 percent of their product into this country without it being checked, they?re going to be happy. The biggest opponents of the USDA inspections are the importers of seafood. A large percentage ? close to 89 percent -- of seafood consumed in this country is imported.?
This is a food-safety issue that?s being dodged, insists Pentecost.
?On the small percentage of imports that FDA has inspected, they?ve found numerous cases of illegal drugs and other contaminants in the seafood. Project that out over all the imports and you?re looking at a large amount of tainted product.?...
