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Food Safety Bill Aired In House

"Not a partisan issue," consumer groups tell Congress

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 4, 2009

Food Safety • Two Companies Pull Meat, Poultry Products Over Health Concerns • Food Safety Group Presses Senate For Action • New Report Recommends Enhanced Food Tracing Guidelines • FDA Issues New Code For Regulating Food Industry • At Least 2 Deaths Reported in Massive E.Coli Ground Beef Recall • Food Toxin Linked To Liver Cancer • Senate Urged To Pass Food Safety Modernization Act • Consumers Have Little Trust That Food They Buy is Safe and Healthy • Consumers Union Opposes USDA Proposal On Salad Safety • New Food Registry Enables Quick Reporting of Dangerous Products • Nothing Simple about Food Dating, Expiration Dates or 'Use-By' Dates • Feds Announce New Food Safety Strategies • House Passes Food Safety Bill --- • More ...

Consumer groups are generally applauding of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, which is currently making its way through the House of Representatives. A draft of the legislation got a hearing Wednesday before an Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

The measure addresses the increasing task of the Food and Drug Administration to protect the food supply. Critics maintain the agency is under-funded and over-stretched, leading to countless food safety lapses -- including record recalls of contaminated spinach, peppers and peanut butter.

In backing the bill, Consumers Union said the measure would give FDA the funding and powers it will need to better ensure the safety of the American food supply.

“Consumers Union applauds the leadership of the Committee for taking action to finally reform our broken food safety system,” said Jean Halloran, Director of Food Policy Initiatives for CU. “This is a much needed step to protect the safety of our nation’s food supply. As Congress moves forward on this legislation, we urge members to add an important provision to require testing and reporting for contaminants, the critical need for which was highlighted by the recent case of Peanut Corporation of America, which, in 12 different instances, found salmonella in its peanut butter and continued to ship deadly peanut products without being required to report known contamination.”

The draft legislation would, for the first time, provide FDA with mandatory recall authority. Under current law, it can only request recalls.

It would require high-risk facilities to be inspected at least every 6-18 months. Currently, facilities are inspected once a decade on average.

It would require electronic electronic traceability systems that are able to track identified contaminated food back to its source. All food producers -- both foreign and domestic -- would be assessed a $1,000 registration fee to help pay for the increased oversight.

"For consumers, food safety is not a partisan issue,” Halloran said. “The Food Safety Enhancement Act discussion draft provides smart, long-overdue solutions to our food safety crisis, and it should be supported by members of Congress from both parties. We urge both parties to unite to address the problem before there is another outbreak that causes more sickness and deaths."

New powers

Some of the proposed new powers for the FDA include:

• Creation of a registry of all food facilities and importers serving Americans, which would be updated on an annual basis. Affected parties would pay fees to be included in the registry, and would be tagged with unique identification numbers for easier tracking.

• Registered facilities would pay an annual fee of $1,000 to fund FDA oversight, including inspections, recalls, and certifications for export of food to the U.S.

• The FDA's powers to "quarantine" potentially unsafe food or products from entering geographic areas would be enhanced.

• The FDA would issue regulations requiring every company in a food produce chain — including manufacturers, processors, and transporters — to maintain records for the origin and distribution of the food, and ensure the records are usable and transferable in multiple formats.

• Enhanced safety requirements for infant formula.

• New authority to subpoena records and protect whistleblowers in case of alleged violations of the law.

"The current state of our food safety system is dangerous not just for the American public, but also for the food industry itself," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "This bill recognizes that the hallmark of strong food safety legislation must be a shared responsibility for food safety oversight between FDA and industry. This legislation will go a long way toward restoring Americans' confidence in our food supply."

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