By Brian Faler

A Senate panel approved a plan to overhaul U.S. food-safety laws amid complaints from lawmakers that a string of outbreaks of food-borne illnesses show current safeguards are inadequate.

The measure would give the Food and Drug Administration new power to pull tainted foods off store shelves, require more frequent inspections of processing facilities, impose tougher standards on imported foods and require companies to develop plans to prevent outbreaks. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passed the bill unanimously.

The measure omits a House-backed proposal to charge companies a $500 annual fee to help pay for the additional inspections. Committee Chairman Tom Harkin said he is skeptical of the idea, saying taxpayers ought to bear the cost of safeguarding the nation’s food supply. He said he didn’t know how much the bill would cost, saying he is waiting an assessment by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

“Our current regulatory system does not adequately protect Americans from serious, widespread food-borne illnesses,” said Harkin, an Iowa Democrat. “The dangers associated with food- borne outbreaks are profound.”

The committee vote follows a series of illness outbreaks involving spinach, peppers, peanut butter and cookie dough, among other items.

76 Million Cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 76 million cases of food-borne illnesses occur in the U.S. annually, 5,000 of which prove fatal. The FDA has issued 3,712 food recalls over the past five years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Harkin said he doubted the full Senate would vote on the measure this year because with lawmakers focused on overhauling the U.S. health-care system there is little room left in lawmakers’ schedule. “I really, honestly, just don’t see how we’re going to get to it before Christmas,” said Harkin. The House approved its plan in July.

The FDA, the agency affected by the Senate bill, oversees 80 percent of the nation’s food supply. The legislation wouldn’t affect the Department of Agriculture, which oversees most of the rest of the food supply.

Comprehensive Legislation
Pamela Bailey, the head of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, praised the bill, saying, “We look forward to working with the Senate to pass comprehensive food safety legislation.”

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food-safety director at the Washington-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the bill “gives FDA needed new authorities to manage food safety from farm to table, through improved standards and more frequent inspections.”

Though the legislation was unanimously approved, with Republicans praising the measure, some Democrats said it didn’t go far enough on some issues.

Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, said it wouldn’t do enough to ensure the FDA could trace illness outbreaks involving processed foods. Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, said the measure wouldn’t adequately address the use of antibiotics in livestock, which he said is producing a growing population of antibiotic-resistant viruses.

Restitution for Farmers
Senator Kay Hagan, a North Carolina Democrat, said the legislation should require the FDA to pay restitution to farmers when it erroneously recalls foods. She said a salmonella outbreak last year initially blamed on tomatoes that was later attributed to peppers cost one family in her state hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We’re talking about people’s livelihoods -- one false recall could put a family out of business,” she said.
The bill would require more frequent inspections of food- producing facilities, with those deemed the highest risk ones examined at least once a year. All others would be inspected at least once every four years.

Lawmakers said the FDA is currently so strapped for resources that many facilities go a decade without being inspected.

The measure also would require importers to verify the safety of their foods, and allow the FDA to deny entry to food from facilities that refuse entry to U.S. inspectors. It would give the FDA expanded authority to recall tainted foods; currently the agency can only force a few items off shelves, such as medical devices and infant formula.

It would establish pilot programs to examine how best to trace outbreaks to their source. The proposal also would give the agency expanded authority to inspect companies’ internal safety records.

Source: Bloomberg

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