Food Safety bill passes in the US House

Food Safety bill passes in US House of Representatives

At the end of July, 2009, the US House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act, H.R. 2749. Now the ball is in the court for the Senate to pass similar legislation. There are some key things in here that are useful, if this act is actually enforced. As we saw from the pet food recalls and the plethora of recalls of processed food products since then, ensuring that there are adequate staff in place to enforce regulations is critical.

The article details several points in the legislation:

"• Inspections of high-risk food facilities at least every 6-12 months as well as inspection of lower-risk facilities at least once every 3 years (FDA currently averages inspections once every ten years.

• High-risk food facilities to submit the results of testing their finished food products for safety.

• All registered domestic and foreign food facilities to identify hazards and implement steps to prevent or reduce contaminants that may appear in food.

• Businesses to keep basic safety records in a standard format so they are easier for FDA to review.

• An FDA-mandated recall if a company fails to do so when requested.

• Food facilities selling to American consumers to register with the FDA and pay annual fees.

• The FDA to gather information and run a pilot project to set up a method to trace food back to its source in the case of contamination. Such a “traceback” system would have to allow FDA to trace food back to its source within 2 business days."

A number of these recommendations were directly a result of the pet food recalls. Remember how no one could identify the source of the melamine? And how the FDA was unable to issue recalls for tainted pet food products? At least these reforms are something and it's doubtful that these would have been passed in the Bush era.

Greater oversight and further legislative reforms are needed however. One-size fits all policies don't work in the context of our food supply system, particularly with respect to small organic farmers -- there are too many variables.

Centre for Science and the Public Interest White Paper

http://www.cspinet.org/

The Centre for Science and the Public Interest in Washington, DC, has put out a sensible and realistic set of recommendations needed to reform the FDA.

"Building a Modern Food Safety System" discusses five points that need to be addressed for creating an effective food safety system for both human and pet food. It's obvious that the FDA is broken and needs major reforms. According to the authors, this would include:

-- Recalls -- The FDA currently doesn't have the power to issue product recalls (these rights have been left exclusively in the hands of the multinational corporations that make products);
-- Traceback -- The FDA has been unable to find the source of the tainted glutens in the pet food recall -- authority needs to be put into place to allow them to be able to quickly trace the source of contaminants
-- Detention -- If a product doesn't comply with regulations, then it should not enter into the food supply system (sounds obvious but there is no regulation governing this)
--Civil and Criminal Penalties -- Food companies must be subject to swift civil and criminal penalties if they violate food safety laws. Citizens who have suffered harm as a result of any violations should have the power to launch civil actions
--Whistleblower protection -- Federal employees should be able to report violations without the threat of loss of employment or any penalties

http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/fswhitepaper.pdf