Senate Passes Food Safety Bill
The Senate finally passed the food safety bill, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) that was introduced in March of 2009. If the provisions of this bill survive through the rest of the legislative process and become law, we anticipate more food recalls and fewer foodborne outbreaks involving dangerous pathogens like Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella and Shigella.
The Food Safety Modernization Act amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to regulate food, including:
- Authorizing the Secretary to: (1) suspend the registration of a food facility; and (2) order a cessation of distribution, or a recall, of food
- Requiring each food facility to evaluate hazards and implement preventive controls
- Directing the Secretary to allocate inspection resources based on the risk profile of food facilities or food
- Requiring the Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare the National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy
- Directing the Secretary to assess and collect fees related to: (1) food facility reinspection; (2) food recalls; and (3) the voluntary qualified importer program
- Requiring the Secretary to: (1) recognize bodies that accredit food testing laboratories; (2) identify preventive programs and practices to promote the safety and security of food; and (3) improve the capacity of the Secretary to track and trace raw agricultural commodities
- Requiring the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to enhance foodborne illness surveillance systems
- Providing for: (1) foreign supplier verification activities; (2) a voluntary qualified importer program; and (3) the inspection of foreign facilities registered to import food.
Many of our clients worked hard to get this bill passed, including Randy Napier, whose mother, Nellie Napier, died after she ate peanut butter contaminated with Salmonella. Earlier this month, we filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Nellie Napier.
"The lawsuit is about holding an irresponsible company accountable for the food safety shortcuts it took—shortcuts that cost my mother her life,” said Randy Napier. “There are other companies responsible for other outbreaks too. We need to send a message that this can’t and won’t be tolerated any more. I don’t want to see anybody else go through what we had to go through."
With the passage of this bill, the Senate has also sent a message that companies have to take measures to keep food safe.
I am very pleased the Senate passed the Food Safety legislation - and thank your firm and all of your clients who diligently supported it.
My parents were hospitalized after eating salad at an upscale restaurant in Hickory, NC years ago. The three of us got sick; I nearly lost my mom.
The North Carolina state lab which was working with the hospital said to quit testing, as we didn't have the usual type of food borne pathogen. However, the local health department found all kinds of problems in the kitchen, any of which could have led to cross-contamination - on a salad.
We'll never know what we had. We are still leary of eating salad anywhere and scrub the lettuce leaves at home.
I'm lucky. I still have my aging parents. But many others don't. So I am so thankful for everyone who raised their voices, as I did, to ask Congress to intercede and help make our food safer.
Thank you!