gathering information and interviewing experts in fact witnesses the f d a and other witnesses will be appearing at a hearing on this subject in a few weeks i appreciate your interest in moving quickly in this investigation since we only have partial information at this time i don't think we're in quite as good a position as i would like to be to question some of today's witnesses or to assess for the accuracy and completeness of the answers some of the questions that we are prepared to ask given such limitations and also since this subcommittee has always tried to be fair i hope we don't rush to conclusions of some of the matters based on this hearing by itself there is one ongoing matter in which i am prepared to comment that's the reluctance of the chinese government to cooperate in assisting the f d a in the investigation of tainted pet food which is manufactured in china over the past few weeks pet food manufacturers have recall millions of cans pouches in bags of food after fines their products have been contaminated it caused serious illnesses and in some cases even deaths in animals that eat in these pet foods the f d a has traced the problem t industrial greedy and called melon line in samples of wheat gluten that was imported from a chinese farm in high doses this substance is believed to be toxic a few days ago it was detected in rice protein concentrate used in some pet food f d a is also investigating where the tainted pet food containing this poison has been fed to hogs possibly bound for the human food chain human food market used to make plastics and is not at all in a lot of that fact the f d a is investigating whether it was intentionally added to the weak wootton or other ingredients to produce the protein content in order to make the bulk products more valuable for the last two weeks the he's been attempting to get visas from china so that is inspectors could join chinese inspectors at the company listed as a manufacturer of the suspect wheat gluten china rejected f t s first request and only yesterday approved the second on china's foot dragging in a public health incident is totally unacceptable building a great wall of bureaucracy between our experts and their problem isn't going to make the problem disappear american consumers who buy these products have the right to know that they're safe that's why other nations routinely cooperate with united states in food safety investigations including giving us a f d a inspectors access to their manufacturing facilities the suspicion of intentional contamination is eerily similar to past incidents in china a dozen years ago eighty nine children in haiti dad after taking cough medicine believe it or not antifreeze that was traced back to china the world never got an answer from the chinese on how this crime occurred and that investigation started in nineteen ninety eight when i was chairman of this same subcommittee we found that one hundred fifty five u s citizens were sick by impure gin to my scene sulfate made by chinese farm we never got a definitive answer on how this unapproved impure drug and gradients got into that particular product significantly counterfeit animal drug and gradients have been linked to the same chinese farm before it moved to the human drugs as in the counterfeit drug cases in this pet food investigation we're confronted with numerous discrepancies the chinese farm listed as the manufacture of the way gluten for food in the u s import records so the chinese government it was exporting its products not for food purposes but for industrial purposes there is also a question where the chinese farm is in fact the actual manufacture of those questions can only be answered with confidence i the f d a is allowed into china to do the inspection themselves my message and i think the midst of this subcommittee on a bipartisan basis to the chinese government is pretty straightforward cooperate to stop these shenanigans with thank you mr chairman for your cooperation and your leadership on this issue i want to welcome all of our witnesses today and i want to thank the the the families who have suffered in come here to share their unfortunate experiences with that  illinois in five minutes all means they mean please thank you mr chairman for holding today's hearing on food safety not only is this a serious public health issue but it's also a matter of national security to which we should give our most attention  i want to especially thank the the families that are here the armstrongs and marshals and prudence for for coming on a special welcome to isabella and ashley and sean for being here today i'm go straight to the chase i think that in order to get a handle on the problem we have to follow the recommendation of the government accountability office and consolidate federal food safety programs in february of this year the g a o deemed federal oversight of food safety as high risk to the economy and public health safety so i support such legislation as the safe food act sponsored by representative de lauro which would consolidate all of the food safety agencies we spread it around to too many places and establish the food safety administration that would bring it all together the f s a would be responsible for the creation administrat forstmann of our food safety laws which is currently lacking and when the news of the call i contamination of spinach broke out last year representatives de lauro to get and i called on chairman barton to hold a hearing on this bill which has been referred to our committee i am very glad that under your leadership chairman's to pack we are discussing the issue today i also want to add my support to mr waxman's call for increased oversight right now by the f and we also have to start holding food including pet food conglomerates accountable now for instance congress corporate policy tries to keep the lid on what they're up to employees are told to never volunteer information and never give more information than necessary and are even told to hide product codes from the on the ground inspectors this vital information that could alert the f d a and consumers to whether a questionable facility is being used to process food or whether a questionable supplier is providing ingredients is it is vital and a failure to share this information is keeps us in the dark about what they're doing to the food that makes it to our kitchen table i wish i could say i was amazed at the incidence of corporate genetic and that has been noted in the press and i will and will be revealed at this hearing today though i've seen it all before when i was a very young mother it's about thirty seven years ago thought another afeard of food producers to keep us in the dark about the age of our food some of you are old enough to remember that everything was coated at that time in one hundred sixty nine thousand nine hundred seventy and a group of young mothers got together and said we want to know her old our food was and believe me to me it was a battle to get manufacturers and retailers to begin to fashion a state their food now of course those days are ubiquitous i also think we need to look further into the lack of inspection of ingredients for food products that are being imported into the united states from countries like china because i'm sure one time i'd like to submit for the record the a p article  food safety strained by imports this article details how put products are not a priority for the f d a inspections even as the import of ingredients has increased by seventy three percent over the last five years as some wanted to attack the united states to assume food supply we have a frighteningly easy way for them to do it it is time that we act to ensure that our food supply is safe thank you mr chairman and i yell back when to do expensive and most abundant food supply of any country in the world in the past whenever i went to the market to buy food for my family i never stopped and wondered is it going to be safe to eat is it going to make anyone at home sick the security of our food supply in my mind has really never been in question i still believe that our food supply is generally safe and secure but the recent outbreaks of both e coli and salmonella have caught the countries and this committee so attention today we're here troubling stories from the armstrong family the prudent family in the marshall family i thank you all for being here today and putting the human face on what has been an astonishing tragedy in this country i'm deeply sorry for the pain that you've all been through and i sincerely appreciate your willingness to come to congress to tell your story thank you in addition to the food safety issue i'm pleased that this committee is also investigating the recent pet food recalls like many of my constituents back home in texas i've been struck by the contamination of pet food in the fact that thousands of beloved animals have died the fact that companies mixed a form of plastic with wheat gluten to manipulate protein levels in the food is not only wrong it's criminal as we've all learned during the aftermath of hurricane katrina americans view their pets as members of the family and to put a pet's life in danger just to increase the profit line is completely unacceptable while i realize that we've only begun our investigation into this matter this practice must be stopped earlier this month i sent a letter to both chairman stu pac and ranking member whitfield requesting that we allocate the adequate amount of time on this issue and i thank the leadership of this committee for doing so i think it is important to remember that there are still many questions that need to be answered and today is merely the beginning of the investigation into these troubling circumstances i do welcome the cunt companies here to tell their side of the story and what they have done and are doing and will do to remedy the situation and see that it never happens again but we all know that nothing in this world is ever one hundred percent safe however i look forward to hearing what the companies view as their role and responsibility in this situation many of us in congress may have a different opinion but i think we can all agree that innocent people innocent animals should not have to die because of a mistake negligent or especially criminal intent on another for an opening statement please or chairman thank you and i thank you for conducting this hearing and i also commend you for the vigor with which you are appreciated this is an important hearing on the threats to public health from contaminated food products and very frankly from the inadequacies of the food drug administration their budget the number of personnel that they have and their competence to carry out their responsibilities every american has reason to worry about pathogens in our supply the second seventy three million americans and they kill five thousand of us each year it is important that we learn how much of this death and illness could have been prevented by diligent and properly funded regulatory agencies primaried the food and drug administration f d a and this is not limited to food nor to cosmetics but also to pharmaceuticals i want to begin by thanking our first panel of witness the courageous patriotic americans who have come here at their own expense to recount the personal tragedies that have befall them and their families i also want to commend my colleagues mr polonium mr inslee for their assistance in these matters now these are not easy matters for our witnesses to discuss two of our witnesses elizabeth armstrong and very prudent will speak of the call i poisoning the cause harm and in one case is still causing grievous harm to their children because all of these kids ate their vegetables the children who are victims of who could have a nation isabella ashley and shawn are also with us today carrie marshall will speak of the terrible infections that are aging mother in laws suffered from salmonella contaminated peanut butter these tragedies represent serious problems are food supply that must be addressed today from two of the companies that sold tainted products and we will hear from two it misses that give us even more concern because the source and breadth of the contaminated wheat rice and possibly corn products that found  into pet foods suggests an even more dangerous breakdown in the regulatory system the supposed to protect america these protein products are pervasive they're used in all manner of human food the principal sailor of the pet food menu foods menu foods tells us that only the highest grade of wheat gluten was ordered for their pet products so these important proteins that are imported by the time could easily wind up in our pantry or restaurant food vending machines regardless of whether they are wheat or corn based proteins they share two important characteristics first they were contaminated deliberately i will repeat that they were contaminated deliberately second they came from our trading partners in china so far the evidence suggests that the deliberate contamination was for greed and not as a trial run for terrorist purposes but we certainly could look forward to subserve were it to be the other way around the chemical melamine the component that poisoned the pet food fraudulent elevates the measurement of protein in the gluten thus increasing its market value while it matters not to the victims whether they are poison for profit or for politics we must be particularly concerned that these profiteers have drawn a roadmap to holes in our regulatory scheme with serious consequences to our people i recall an episode involving tainted canned mushrooms from china a few years ago at that time the f d a shut down all imports of mushrooms from china until f d a inspectors went there and approved each and every plant we will expect that similar efforts and similar concept as well as a result of the hearings of this committee today up to yesterday china would not let our inspectors into the contaminated wheat gluten factory in fact they wouldn't even tell us where the plants were located much less to whom a ship the response of this administration was simply to shut off imports only from the trading company that shipped the poison product chinese w gluten continues to pour into this country relying on imperfect testing at the ports agency gambles with the health of americans so as not to disturb the trading profits of the chinese will note that the failure of this government to properly food properly funded food and drug administration and to see to it that they have the adequate resources to address their important responsibilities is a national scandal and has been a concern to this committee for a number of years in a couple weeks we will note that we will hold a second day of hearings at that time we will have the f d a here to account for their imperfect stewardship of their public out and we will expect them to tell us not only about that but what resources they have to address these problems and what resources they need to see to it that they can carry out their proper and very important mission i watch the food and drug administration to chase too many imports with too few resources for too many years whether the life threatening product is a counterfeit drugs or tainted  food lax enough properly trained properly motivated personnel to do an increasingly difficult job particularly at the ports of entry of imported foods good people in the field continue  priority issue from a public health standpoint as well as from a national security issue and you don't have to be a scientist you simply have to be a concerned citizen or a parent to know that a very real threat exists when  terrorist could easily put some toxic chemical into some product that is moving through the change and that could go about causing a lot of damage before it is detected since september eleventh  our national sense of vulnerability has steadily risen and we have been warned time and again and again of the vulnerability of our food and water supplies we are also facing up to a less publicized but potentially devastating threat terrorism directed at the nation's food and agricultural infrastructure and i think it is something that we have to face up to and recognize that is there it is a threat that is very real delicate poisoning and deliberate poisoning of any of our food items will undermine confidence in supplies it would wreak havoc on the agricultural sector of this nation's economy which accounts for about a six p americans are consuming increasing amounts of import food and drink and the demand among u s makers for overseas ingredients is constantly increasing however according to the f d a it only has enough inspectors to check about one percent of the eight point nine million imported food shipments that come into the country each year one percent is all that gets checked so we do have to realize this means we have an increased vulnerability and it leads to some questions that we will be asking through this hearing and through some others is the f d a too large  bureaucratic to respond has it not made it a priority to respond in a post nine eleven world have they chosen not to shift their priorities not everything is a matter of money many things are a matter of priority and taking the time to restructure to meet the challenges that are before you is the f d a capable of restructuring so that they have the ability to address these concerns or do they choose to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the concerns that we have do we need to apply the standards that we see for imported foods and drugs does this need to be really applied to reimportation of drugs if we allow reimported drugs into this country what is the expected level of corporate bureaucratic and personal responsibility how do we make certain we don't see a new group of class action lawsuits we must seek greater accountability in these questions  and our nation's food and drug supply and we must expect that all ports that are coming into this country are going to meet our u s safety standards they are rigorous but we intend for them to be met according to the g a o our food supply is generally considered to be safe we realize that there are vulnerabilities we look forward to working with the f d a to address these questions and i yelled the balance of my time