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Obama's FDA Cracks Down on Food Industry
Sweeping pistachio recall rejects slow pace of peanut crisis
By Matt Cantor
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Posted Apr 7, 09 8:17 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Under President Obama, the Food and Drug Administration is taking on a tougher, more preventative role, the New York Times reports, leading, for example, to product recalls before anyone’s been sickened. The change is evident in the agency’s handling of the pistachio scare: It warned against eating them without reports of sickness, then pushed for a recall of all pistachios harvested in 2008 by California’s Setton company.
Hundreds of products, from candy bars to trail mix, are set to disappear from shelves in a recall announced yesterday. The agency’s acting head aims not to repeat the slow pace of the peanut recall. “The food industry needs to be on notice that FDA is going to be much more proactive and move things far faster,” said an official.