"You're Eating That?" Newspaper Article Summary

The article, “You’re Eating That?” from The New York Times, is an article that discusses how the food safety market is one of the biggest concerns for Americans. The article also brought up the point that many Americans are less confident in what they are buying from the grocery stores. This could be problematic because the food producers that take their product to a laboratory can easily switch labs if their food is not approved at the first lab. I agree with the article because obviously if the producer’s food didn’t pass at one lab’s testing, it shouldn’t pass anywhere or enter the food market at all. The laboratory that finds a problem with a product is not allowed to notify the FDA and alert them of the problem. They have to give the results to the importer. This is ridiculous because they can just turn around and take their products to another lab that is not as uptight. There is a chance that at this laboratory their product will be passed. The article shares the idea that maybe the producers should be required to tell which lab they are using in order to prevent the switching of labs. We put a lot of trust in the FDA and therefore we expect them to protect our food industry so it is safe for consumers. If they don’t do their job how should we, as consumers, feel safe buying the various products found in grocery stores? If we don’t get these regulations straightened out then the trust that people have in the industry will continue to dwindle and soon we will not have a secure system. Many more problems will be created if we don’t get in control of our current problem in the food market.

“You’re Eating That?” New York Times, The (NY) 26 Nov. 2007. 28 Nov. 2007 http://infoweb.newsbank.com/iw-search/we/InfoWeb/?p_action=print&p_docid=11D29F561A1BD680&p_product=AWNB&p_theme=aggregated4&p_nbid=X6FD5EKSMTE5NjI3NDgyNi4xNDQ2MTY6MToxMzo2NC4xMTMuNzMuMjAw.