Legislation gives FDA new tools to combat outbreaks of food-borne illness
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords today joined a bipartisan coalition in the House to support landmark legislation aimed at protecting children and families from contaminated food.
“Every year, 5,000 Americans die and more than 70 million get sick because they ate contaminated food,” said Giffords. “These are not random, unpreventable occurrences but the sad result of a flawed food safety system. Fixing this system is the goal of the bill we voted on today.”
Giffords was among 283 lawmakers – 229 Democrats and 54 Republicans – to vote for the Food Safety Enhancement Act. The bill now goes before the Senate for consideration.
The Food Safety Enhancement Act is strongly supported by consumer groups and President Obama. It was prompted by a series of illness outbreaks that were caused by contaminated peppers, peanuts, pistachios, and cookie dough. In May, Arizonans were impacted by a recall of contaminated beef from Idaho and red pork tamale products from New Mexico.
Prior to today’s vote, Giffords called on congressional leaders to make sure that the government and agriculture industry work together to prevent food contamination.
“The farmers remain strong allies in the efforts to protect the safety of our nation’s food supply,” the congresswoman wrote in a July 24 letter to Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
The Food Safety Enhancement Act includes several long-overdue repairs to our food safety system, including providing critical new tools and authority to the Food and Drug Administration. Among the bill’s main provisions is the requirement that food growers and processors identify the contamination risks they face, create controls to prevent contamination, monitor those controls, test to make sure they are working and update those measures regularly.
Other key provisions are:
• Up-to-date registry of all domestic and foreign food facilities selling to American consumers. The bill requires all food facilities operating within the U.S. or importing food to the U.S. to register with FDA annually.
• Dedicated source of funding for enhanced FDA oversight of food safety. The bill requires all domestic and foreign food facilities selling to American consumers to pay an annual registration fee of $500 per facility. These annual fees will be used to defray the cost of the heightened inspection regime mandated by the bill.
• Strong, enforceable performance standards. Under the bill, the FDA will have clear authority to issue and require food facilities to meet strong, enforceable performance standards to ensure the safety of various types of food.
• More frequent inspection of food processing facilities. The bill requires the FDA to inspect high-risk food processing facilities at least once every 6-12 months, inspect lower-risk facilities at least once every 18 months to 3 years; and warehouses at least once every 5 years. (The FDA currently inspects all facilities on average only about once every 10 years.)
• Food trace-back system. Under the bill, the FDA will establish a food trace-back system, building upon and improving the voluntary food trace-back systems put in place by the produce industry, so that public health officials can more easily determine the source of food-borne illness outbreaks. The bill directs FDA to issue trace-back regulations that enable it to identify the history of the food in as short a timeframe as practicable. Prior to issuing the regulations, FDA would be required to conduct a feasibility study. There are also exemptions for certain foods and facilities.
• Ensuring imported foods are safe. The bill directs FDA to require certain foreign foods to be certified as meeting all U.S. food safety requirements by third parties accredited by FDA. In addition, the bill directs FDA to develop voluntary safety and security guidelines for imported foods. Importers meeting the guidelines would receive expedited processing.
• Better access to records in order to prevent outbreaks. The bill gives FDA access to the records of food producers and manufacturers during routine inspections. Under current law, FDA must wait for food-borne illnesses to occur before the agency can access records. In the recent case of contaminated peanuts, FDA was unable to access records that might have prevented the outbreak from occurring in the first place.
• Strong, flexible enforcement tools. The bill strengthens penalties imposed on food facilities that fail to comply with safety requirements.
• Authority to order a food recall. The bill gives FDA the authority to order a recall if a company fails to do so when requested.
• Country-of-origin labeling. The bill requires all processed food labels to indicate the country in which final processing occurred. It also requires country-of-origin labeling for all produce.
• Implementing preventive systems. One of the most important changes that will occur under this bill is a new focus on prevention, and a shared responsibility between FDA and food manufacturers to keep the food supply safe. The bill requires food manufacturers to implement preventive systems to stop outbreaks before they occur. All food facilities will have to conduct hazard analyses, assess potential food safety risks, and develop plans to keep the food supply safe.