[freespirited]

Ok, lemme explain it to you.

The FDA is and long has been one of the worst agencies in the federal government. Really talented scientists work for a food or drug company, or a university, or NIH (even CDC is pretty impressive). FDA is where you find your high school lab partner. Competence is not its strong suit.

Yes, I’m exaggerating, but not all that much.

[JimPrevor]

You point to a serious problem. Although FDA has some fantastic people — especially at headquarters — many of the people, especially in the field offices, are not up to snuff.

It often seems they can't understand their own epidemiology.

But these are the people in charge of food safety! They also wind up bullying a lot of small businesses perhaps because, being unable to explain what they don't understand, they fall back on asserting authority.

Jim Prevor
http://www.PerishablePundit.com