Senate Food Safety Bill Highlights

Late on August 12, the Senate released a manager's version of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.  Senator Harkin (D-IA) chairman of the Senate, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee provided highlights in a news release, according to The Packer.

Some highlights of the legislation include:

• Requiring facilities that "manufacture, process, pack, or hold food to have in place risk-based preventative control plans to address identified hazards and prevent adulteration."  These provisions exclude restaurants and most farms.
• Stricter import controls -- requires "importers to verify the safety of foreign suppliers and imported food" and allows FDA to deny entry of food that lacks certification or "is from a foreign facility that has refused" US inspectors.
• Requires more frequent inspection.
• Gives FDA authority to order a mandatory recall "if the food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death and a company has failed to voluntarily recall the product."
• Enhanced food safety surveillance.
• Increased resources for FDA.

The Hill Blog reports that the manager's package includes provisions favoring small farmers.  A document summarizing how the bill will impact small farms and businesses is available here.

Additionally, the New York Times reports that Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) will offer an amendment to ban bisphenol A (BPA) from all children's food and drink containers during the food safety debate.

To read The Packer story, click here.
To read The Hill Blog story, click here.
To read the New York Times story, click here.

Posted: 08/16/2010