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Summary of Food Safety Modernization Act (Senate debate pending)

Posted By Drew Falkenstein on April 12, 2010

Not exactly fresh out of committee, but out of committee nonetheless, senate bill 510 (a/k/a the Food Safety Modernization Act) makes its way to the senate floor soon, possibly this week.  The full senate debate and subsequent vote is certainly timely, as just today Michael Moss was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his story on Stephanie Smiths E. coli O157:H7 illness and Linda Rivera’s long-awaited emergence from a Nevada hospital where she has spent almost a year after also being infected by E. coli O157:H7.  Stephanie was sickened by a hamburger made by Cargill, and Linda by contaminated cookie dough made by Nestle. 

The Food Safety Modernization Act is truly an important piece of legislation, in that it affects every citizen of this country, and even some abroad, on a daily basis.  The bill substantially modifies the Federal Food Drug and Cosmetics Act, and generally gives the Food and Drug Administration better authority and ability to monitor the safety of our food supply, and take quicker and more effective action for food companies that don’t adequately protect against foodpoisoning risks. 

Among other, more specific, things, the Food Safety Modernization Act:

 

Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA) to expand the authority of the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to regulate food, including by authorizing the Secretary to suspend the registration of a food facility.

Requires each food facility to evaluate hazards and implement preventive controls.

Directs the Secretary to assess and collect fees related to: (1) food facility reinspection; (2) food recalls; and (3) the voluntary qualified importer program.

Requires the Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare the National Agriculture and Food Defense Strategy.

Requires the Secretary to: (1) identify preventive programs and practices to promote the safety and security of food; (2) promulgate regulations on sanitary food transportation practices; (3) develop a policy to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early childhood education programs; (4) allocate inspection resources based on the risk profile of food facilities or food; (5) recognize bodies that accredit food testing laboratories; and (6) improve the capacity of the Secretary to track and trace raw agricultural commodities.

Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to enhance foodborne illness surveillance systems.

Authorizes the Secretary to order an immediate cessation of distribution, or a recall, of food. Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to assist state, local, and tribal governments in preparing for, assessing, decontaminating, and recovering from an agriculture or food emergency.

Provides for: (1) foreign supplier verification activities; (2) a voluntary qualified importer program; and (3) the inspection of foreign facilities registered to import food.
 

  • Janice Holz

    Please support any amendment to SB510 that protects small farmers. We do not need one-size-fits-all, and the current bill would put many small farmers out of business — exactly the opposite of what we need. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/oregons_small-scale_farms_worr.html
    Sen. John Tester plans to introduce an amendment that would exclude growers and processors who earn less than $500,000 a year or sell to farmers markets — this sounds good to me.

  • http://www.weber-farms.com Pat

    I am against giving ANY ONE AGENCY OR PERSON such unbridled power.
    it is cause for alarm when this occurs. We were not designed to run as a Soviet police state, yet, with all of this unchecked power handed to overlords, that’s where we are headed.
    It’s time to kill this bill, and start actively inspecting the Corporate food industry – only that will “fix” the problems.

  • Rob

    Go watch Food, Inc. We need to stop poisoning ourselves with fewer choices of riskier foods.

  • J Mishko

    What happens to bake sales, wedding receptions, church socials and fund raising feeds, political meals for a lot less than hundreds per plate, roadside fruit stands, 4 H sale of produce or livestock etc. ?

  • JR

    I’m not a farmer but have always said the entire world is dependent upon the farmer. They are often overworked and underappreciated and ultimately keep every human and most animals, alive. Maybe I was wrong. Whoever controls the food supply controls the people. With this bill we all know who will be in control. It will be the final blow to independence in this country.

  • JD

    THINK about what this will do! THINK before you allow a government that will gladly pass you medications without proper testing to decide which foods you can eat! THIS act could easily CRUSH not only small organic farms by weighting them with regulations and expensive paperwork (THOSE HOSPITALIZED WEREN’T VICTIMS OF ORGANIC FOODS) but could very easily creep into YOUR backyard and keep you from growing food for your families too!!
    THINK and ACT according to your conscience…this is more important than the Patriot Act (The Sedition Act) that allows the government to bug your home or arrest you without cause. THEY COULD CONTROL YOUR FOOD SUPPLY!

  • amy williams

    Hey guess what cows did NOT evolve to eat CORN. Guess what else the CORN they feed the cows at factory farms is GENETICALLY ENGINEERED with E-COLI and various other forms of viruses and bacterium. Not to mention the average burger contains an average of HUNDREDS of cows. Yes, ONE burger=hundreds of cows. It really does SUCK that I will never know a world where there isn’t any POLITICS in my and your food supply.

  • Rae

    What can we do to fight it?! I always want to fight legislation, but feel so powerless. It’s like, if you say something against legislation, you’re considered radical & tuned out.
    My goal is to move out of this country next year. I can’t have a family here.

  • Carol Dodd

    I don’t believe this is a summary of the complete bill. I read an earlier article that stated that this bill would regulate what kind of seeds you could grow in your back yard garden.
    I am uncomfortable with this law because it’s leaving the FDA in charge. The FDA constantly bows to the pressure of drug lobbiests and certify all kinds of drugs that are not completely tested. I can see the same things happening with giant food industries while the small farmer, local grower, community garden etc are legislated right out of business.

  • Bob

    Remember Jack-in-the-Box? Remember the recall of millions of lbs of e coli contaminated hamburger? Remember millions of salmonilla contaminated eggs?
    If you do, you’ll remember why we desperately need this legislation passed. The amendments protecting small farms and farmers markets are in place. If we can save one 2 year old, it’s worth it especially given the non-intrusive nature of the legislation. It only requires what common sense tells us should have been done years ago.

  • Natalie Sirkin

    This bill comes as close as you can get to the Maoist interference in farming that resulted in shortages of food and many millions of deaths from starvation from 1959 to 1962 and beyond all over China.

  • mark

    I would feel alot more inclined to be concerned about this bill, if I didn’t always hear the same old name-calling conspiracy theories: Communist, Marxist, Maoist, Big Brother, Big Government. Any chance we could have an actual DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES? Government regulation saves lives AND causes difficulties in people’s lives. Ever hear about Rachel Carson or the woman (sorry I can’t recall her name) who stood up alone against Thalidomide? Did agricultural or pharmaceutical production plummet? Did personal liberty cease? It always amazes me how so many people are SO smart and instantly have an easy answer for complex questions–despite usually having no serious background or training (or desire for) in the field at hand.
    Natalie–have you actually READ about centralized Communist planning? There is nothing in this bill that takes away private property and puts government in a position to say who can and can’t farm, and where, and how much of what crops they are required to produce. I find no provision for moving our inner city youth and high school dropouts off to farms. If you can produce a crop that’s not making people sick, you’re free to farm. And of course, if this were Maoism, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion, or communicating with our elected representatives!
    Carol Dodd–I’ve heard the same silliness, and could find nothing related to backyard seeds, just now, after reading a summary of sections and titles of the bill. Of course, the several “independent” sites summarizing gov’t legislation could all be part of a gov’t conspiracy to hoodwink, rob and poison us; and of course, every well meaning citizen who is elected to political office probably becomes a liar and crook within 30 days. Carol, did you hear the rest of the story too? It’s all Monsanto–they’ve infiltrated the government and are manipulating not only the legislative branch, but executive branch AND the judicial branch–so even if a case about your right to produce or sell or buy garden seeds were to reach the Supreme Court, Monsanto controls the Supreme Court too! The real story: Monsanto does indeed want to own the seeds it genetically engineers, and forbid farmers from saving or using that seed without paying Monsanto. They would like a law that requires processors to analyze crops, so farmers who use Monsanto’s “intellectual property” without payment would be caught. (Hmmm….sounds familiar….for years, even if I could have discovered the breeding behind Burpee’s Hybrids–or anyone else’s–it’s been against the law for me to breed “their” varieties.) No doubt, there are Monsanto executives who fantasize about controlling all seed production. But do you really think the huge home garden industry, the huge number of home gardeners, the huge natural food industry, and the huge number of Independents and Tea Partiers newly elected and spread throught America would allow such a corporate take over?
    A little caution and investigation is always in order, but don’t we often sound silly? Do we really help our cause? JR–I wonder how many times each year since 1776 the words “final blow to independence” have been usued?
    Read last month’s Organic Gardening for two articles about genetic engineering.
    Some of us are indeed concerned about polluted and contaminated food killing people, and we’re ALSO uinterested in how we can best design regulations to minimize the risks the careless and unscrupulous would inflict on us; WITHOUT hindering conscientious growers and producers in the process.

  • Greg

    Mark, what’s the big idea? Trying to insert a voice of reason into this discussion? Shame on you!