California E. coli Bills Die
The leafy green vegetable industry has won a battle in the California legislature to continue its failed course of “self regulation.” Food safety advocates have been watching two bills make their way through the California legislative process. These bills would have provided needed government oversight of the sanitary processing of leafy green vegetables, including state inspections. The bills, which were sponsored by Sen. Dean Florez in response to the 2006 E. coli outbreak linked to California-grown spinach, had been passed by the state Senate but were killed in an Assembly committee.
In a story in the Central Valley Business Times, Nicole Para, chairwoman of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, was stated as saying that “her members prefer to let the agriculture industry regulate itself with a stricter, but voluntary, inspection program.”
Although state and federal enforcement of safety laws and regulations is dependent on adequate funding and political will, it is still better to have the laws and regulations than to have self-regulation. Spare the rod; spoil the industry; sicken consumers.
Reference: Politicians squabble: E. coli bills die, Central Valley Business Times, June 28, 2007.
