Food Protection: The Mission May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Autor: Larry J. Gordon
Rok vydání: 1994
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Public Health Policy. 15:393
ISSN: 0197-5897
DOI: 10.2307/3343021
Popis: aGll%,Z N agency mission describes the services to be rendered cJ and the population to be served. Some agencies have A /\ 2 a mission of serving and protecting the interests of the public. Other agencies owe their existence and allegiance to specific industries or segments of public interest. Whenever an agency purports to protect the interests of the public as well as protecting and enhancing the activities of some special interest group, a conflict of interest occurs. This results in the classic "fox in the hen house" syndrome. Such conflicts of interest result in consumers being defrauded as well as possibly diseased or injured, rather than receiving the protection and services they rightfully deserve and understandably expect. Any agency that does not fully develop and understand the mission of protecting the health of the consumer and the quality of the environment, may end up actually protecting or promoting the interests of those it is charged with regulating or otherwise serving. Agencies that deliver public health services should serve all citizens or consumers. However, as public health services have diversified to numerous agencies, important public health services have become the responsibility of other agencies which are designed to protect and promote the narrower statutory needs and interests of agriculture, tourism, labor, or business. Many incidents have occurred which should cause the public to be outraged. Among the more recent, 230 cases of food-borne illness were reported among individuals who had eaten inadequately cooked hamburgers at a fast food establishment in January I993 in the state
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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