FDA’s new commissioner, Dr. Margaret Hamburg, recently stated that FDA failed the public in the salmonella contaminated peanut butter scare last year. Click here for story, on Food Production Daily. According to Dr. Hamburg, “It reflected a failure of the FDA and its regulatory partners to identify risk and to establish and enforce basic preventive controls.” She also stated in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that FDA would tighten the scrutiny surrounding nutritional claims. Click here for article. Finally, Dr. Hamburg has declared that she will move the FDA towards a “modern food-safety system focused on the prevention of contamination” and restore credibility to the FDA. For more on this issue, click here for Associated Press story.
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce will hold a hearing tomorrow, June 3, on the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, H.R. 759, introduced in January by Reps. Waxman, Dingell, Stupak, and Pallone. According to the Washington Post, this bill would give FDA enhanced recall authority, quarantine authority, and increase civil and criminal penalties for violators. For story, click here. To view legislation, click here. Finally, to read a summary of the legislation, click here.
Yesterday, China’s new food safety rules went into effect. Click here, for story on Food Production Daily. The new rules are seen as tightening up China’s food monitoring network, providing stricter standards, supervision, and a recall system.
Posted: 06/02/09
