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| Food safety proposal awaits Bush signature |
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By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) food safety proposal, which at press time was awaiting the signature of President Bush to become part of the Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act, couldn’t come at a better time as far as many American consumers are concerned.
Foreshadowing the Sept. 29 news that more than 20 million pounds of ground beef will be recalled from U.S. grocers and distributors due to safety concerns, Durbin’s proposal requiring companies to report food contamination incidents within 24 hours of discovery was approved by the Senate on Sept. 20.
“With the passage of (Sept. 20’s) legislation, companies will have to report food contamination within 24 hours of discovery or be penalized,” Durbin said of the amendment to this year’s FDA re-authorization bill, which includes some of the strongest food safety provisions to be enacted in years.
The amendment comes in the wake of a recent spate of tainted food incidents affecting both humans and animals in the United States, including house pets.
The bill’s food safety provisions will result in faster recalls, alerts and notifications through the supply chain, according to Durbin. Contaminated products will be tracked and removed from the supply chain earlier and faster, with recalls targeted to specific lots and batches of contaminated products. Companies that fail to report incidents or falsify reports will be subject to civil and criminal charges.
The amendment also would result in an early warning and notification system for incidents of pet food contamination and provides for better, more uniform pet food safety standards. It also seeks to improve federal-state coordination with regard to food safety, directs FDA to improve communication efforts during recalls and to issue more detailed inspection reports to Congress and includes a Sense of the Congress directive that states it is imperative for Congress to pursue comprehensive food safety reform.
Durbin has also called for legislation that would develop a single food safety agency and the implementation of a food safety program to standardize U.S. food safety activities (The Safe Food Act - S.654).
Durbin outlined the amendment on Sept. 29 at the 30th Annual National Food Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., saying that consumer confidence in America’s food supply is still strong “but the recalls are starting to make some people wonder.” He also pointed out his commitment to food safety since being elected to the Senate 10 years ago.
“It used to be that when I talked about food safety, a lot of reporters’ eyes would glaze over. Not anymore. Now when I talk about fixing America’s broken food safety system, it feels like one of those Merrill Lynch commercials,” Durbin said. “People listen. Whether it’s food they feed their families or the toys they give their children, Americans want to know that the products they bring into their homes are safe. And if there’s a problem, they expect their government to catch it early, and fix it.”
Durbin cited examples of a U.S. food safety system gone awry, saying responsibility for food labeling and food safety is spread out over 12 different federal agencies using 35 different rule books and answering to different committees in Congress.
“Instead of a system based on science, we have a crazy-quilt jumble,” Durbin said. “Here’s another example: eggs in the shell are the responsibility of the FDA. But broken eggs are in USDA’s court. That’s not a system; that’s a regulatory food fight.”
The new Congress aims to reverse the negative trend, Durbin stated, by increasing the FDA’s resources and increasing the number of safety inspectors. The FY08 agriculture appropriations bill passed by the Senate includes an additional $38 million for USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service to improve meat and poultry inspections and an additional $48 million for food safety initiatives at FDA.
Durbin proposes a “modest” user’s fee on food imports to fund improved food safety programs, hire new inspectors and support food safety research, among other revenue-generating measures.
“In addition, the bill creates a certification standard for exporting firms and countries. We are telling people if you want a slice of the American market, you have to have food safety standards in your own country that are equivalent to ours. And if there’s a problem, you need to allow our inspectors into your plants and share information without unnecessary delay,” Durbin said.
Durbin recommended a consolidation into a single U.S. food safety agency.
“I am announcing now that I intend to offer an amendment to the farm bill re-authorization that will sunset all 12 of the existing federal food safety agencies in two years,” he said. “If the new system isn’t any better, we can always go back to the broken system we have now.
“We’ve lost enough sleep over problems in this broken system we have now, and we’ve lost too much time that we could have used to fix it. It’s time to set the real gold standard for food safety in this century.” |
| 10/3/2007 |
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