What is the greatest utility of keeping records? Why do the governments and even many organizations emphasize this? The only reason is that it helps an individual or even the pertinent organization to look into some imperative matter of the past. Furthermore, it helps you to comprehend the existing scenario in a better manner.

Now what may happen if the reverse takes place? Not only it will annoy the onlookers but may also give rise to skepticism. The condition of the federal investigators these days is almost the same. They have revealed that a number of food companies, in the realm of the United States of America, don’t (simply) care to adhere to federal recordkeeping requirements and the Food and Drug Administration’s competence to locate the source of food-borne illnesses quickly, on account of that, gets hampered.

Let’s concentrate on the very law. It’s known as the 2002 bioterrorism law, also as “one step up, one step down” and requires food makers, processors and distributors to keep records showing from whom they bought products and to whom they sold them. However, as per the study report of the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general 60% of the 118 facilities surveyed didn’t feel it necessary to keep those records. Reason? While some of them cited their ignorance of any such law, others termed the entire responsibility as a highly difficult job.

You may be amazed to know, in spite of the best efforts, the watchdog agency could trace only five items among 40 items from retail stores to the farm where they were grown. Speaking on this, HHS Inspector General Daniel Levinson told members of the House Agriculture Committee’s appropriations panel quite dejectedly, “We don’t have the compliance envisioned by Congress.” According to him, the deficiency of adequate records “limits the ability to trace food products through each stage of the food supply chain back to the farm or border.”

Something must be done at once, therefore, since the agency has often been censured severely due to series of major outbreaks involving peanuts, spinach, lettuce, seafood, and other products.