Assessing risks is at the core of the FDA's public health protection duties. The FDA has investigators and inspectors who collect product samples for examination by FDA scientists or for checking the information on the labels. If a company has violated any of the laws that the FDA enforces, it is usually given the chance to correct the problem voluntarily before the FDA pursues legal action. The scientific evidence needed to back up the FDA's legal cases, such as analysis of product samples, is prepared by agency scientists working in dozens of FDA laboratories across the country.
After students have completed the Mind Sweep, discuss each scenario and allow students to relate the circumstance it illustrates to their experience.
1. Sometimes one factor - risk or benefit - clearly outweighs the other. It might be soup, it might be spoiled, it might not even be food. The risk of eating it is too great to achieve the benefit of warding off minor hunger pangs until dinnertime.
2. Sometimes the risk and benefit seem equally matched and it is hard to choose. This happens sometimes in life but is not usually associated with food safety in the United States due to the safeguards in place to protect the food supply.
3. You can't effectively weigh risk and benefit unless you have accurate information. The limits set by the EPA for pesticide residues in food provide such a high margin for safety that it is reasonable to conclude that any residue found in food would not pose a health risk. Not eating fresh fruits or vegetables, on the other hand, poses a definite health risk.
A benefit is something good or helpful. A risk is the possibility of harm. Much of everyday life holds the potential for both benefit and risk, and you must decide, case by case, whether the benefit is worth the risk. Read each of the risk/benefit situations that follow and rate the risks and benefits as being "high" or "low."
1. Sam is really hungry and it is two hours before dinner. He finds a bowl of thick, greenish liquid in the refrigerator. Probably soup, thinks Sam.
2. Lucy and her brother are hiking in a remote area. Her brother is seriously injured and needs help quickly. Lucy can reach help in thirty minutes if she takes an abandoned, rotting rope bridge. The only other way will take over two hours.
3. Whitney read an ad stating that it is safer to eat fruits and vegetables grown without the use of pesticides. The neighborhood stores sell only commercially grown produce. Whitney has stopped eating fresh fruits and vegetables.
Like most other things in life, some substances associated with food have, or are thought by some people to have, potential risks as well as benefits. The following chart summarizes the benefits and potential or perceived risks of some of these substances. Also included is biotechnology, which, in part, means the use of living organisms or their byproducts to make or change products or to improve plants or animals. Study the chart and discuss whether the benefits of each item outweigh its potential risks.
Some Some Restrictions
Possible Potential Taken to
Item Benefits Risks Risks
Animal Drugs -Helps keep -Small amounts of -Safe limits for
food animals the drug may drug residues are
free from remain in the set by the FDA.
suffering and animal meat, eggs, The USDA tests
disease. or milk. (There samples for drug
are no documented residues when
-Keeps the cost cases of serious animals are
of food low by illness caused slaughtered. If
producing more by animal-drug residues are above
food faster. residues, legal limits, the
however.) FDA investigates.
Biotechnology -Improves -No new or unique -Products are
nutrition risks have been sampled and
content. found. inspected along
with regular foods.
Biotechnology
products that
aren't similar
to substances
traditionally
found in food or
that have no
history of safe
use in food may
require premarket
approval from FDA.
Pesticides -Ensures an -Some persist in -The EPA regulates
adequate, environment for the manufacture,
affordable many years. If use, and labeling
food supply. used improperly, of pesticides,
excessive amounts and monitors their
-Helps prevent could remain on presence in the
the growth of food or in water, environment. The
molds that possibly causing FDA and USDA
might be illness. sample and test
harmful to foods for residues.
consumers.
* U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the International Food Information Council Foundation, 1993