Clark Howard's Tips

June 16, 2008

Clark had tomatoes as part of his last mealÉand he's hoping it's not going to be his last meal! The salmonella scare has shaken a lot of people. It seems like food borne illnesses have become an epidemic in recent years. But Clark thinks it's not that there are necessarily more instances, it's just that there's better media coverage of them.

Business Week reports that the FDA is short of the necessary technology and manpower to do reliable inspections of food plants. In fact, they say it would take the FDA some 1,900 years to check every single food plant just once. Clark doesn't know about you, but he doesn't plan on being around that long!

Libertarians would say that the food industry should be self-regulated. But since it is not, Clark believes government should reasonably be expected to step into this role. It is sheer madness that we live in a wealthy developed nation and can't routinely ensure that our food supply is safe.

Some people say that we should just grow our own food on a household level. But that's not a practical solution for everyone. So we either need to set the challenge up to industry, or assess the industry a tax so that that FDA can hire more people and buy the right equipment to get the job done.

Clark knows people will take issue with him on this, but he wants to know that something his children or his mother eats is not going to harm them.

Consumer advice courtesy of