The Chicago Tribune reports that by the time the U.S. Food and Drug Administration got around to worrying about how much lead we might be ingesting along with our calcium supplements, most of the manufacturers of those tablets had grudgingly gotten the lead out.
Why? Because California already had its own standard for allowable levels of lead, and the companies wanted to sell calcium in California. Told to either reduce the lead or label the product as potentially dangerous, the companies chose to make their product safer, not just for Californians but for everyone. The FDA had nothing to do with it.Continue Reading Stomping on state standards
Let health ‘umps’ call potlucks
In a Wisconsin State Journal OpEd last week, Brae Surgeoner and Ben Chapman said Wisconsin Assembly recently passed the aptly named Potluck Liberation Act, a law exempting community dinners from health inspection.
Patriotically, Rep. Barb Gronemus, D-Whitehall, stated, “To say you shouldn’t have a potluck is like saying you shouldn’t have a ballgame.”
Comparing dinners where the possibility of foodborne illness is a frightening reality to one of America’s much-loved pastimes is intriguing. Acquiring a salmonella infection from an improperly handled turkey would be kind of like standing in front of a Pedro Martinez fastball: The messy reaction in your pants would be similar.Continue Reading Let health ‘umps’ call potlucks
A hard bill to swallow
In an OpEd yesterday, Harold Meyerson of the Washington Post discussed that last week, even as Congress with great fanfare was protecting the American people against whatever mischief the harbor barons of Dubai were contemplating, it quietly decided to strip some long-standing protections from the same American people at the behest of our very own food industry. Last Wednesday the House passed the National Uniformity for Food Act, which might better be named the Swallow at Your Own Risk Act.
In one swoop, the bill preempts roughly 200 state laws governing food safety. The theory here is that we lack uniform national standards in such areas as lead and arsenic content, milk and shellfish safety, and the stuff that goes into food coloring and additives. National standards, the bill’s champions argue, would be good for the whole country.Continue Reading A hard bill to swallow
Food-safety labeling bill advances
The Seattle Times reports that the House approved legislation Wednesday that would standardize food-safety labeling requirements across the country, a move critics said would replace some strong state standards with weaker federal ones.
The vote was endorsed 283-139 and goes to the Senate. Food producers and grocers backed the bill.
The measure would concentrate most food-safety labeling power with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and prohibit states from requiring warnings that differ from those mandated by the federal government.Continue Reading Food-safety labeling bill advances
FDA issues guidelines for fresh-cut produce
The Monterey County Herald reports that the Food and Drug Administration has issued its first set of safety guidelines for the way fresh-cut produce companies process bagged salad, apple slices and cut celery sticks.
The release of the guidelines follows a scathing November letter in which the FDA urged fresh-cut producers to do more to protect consumers from food-borne illness outbreaks. Eight outbreaks have been traced to Salinas Valley lettuce and spinach in the past decade, according to the FDA.Continue Reading FDA issues guidelines for fresh-cut produce
Food warnings
Libby Quaid of the The Associated Press reports that hundreds of warnings on food labels could vanish under a measure moving toward approval in the House.
The bill would stop states from adding warnings that are different from federal rules. States currently add hundreds of extra warnings, indicating the presence of arsenic in water, mercury in fish, alcohol in candy, pesticides in vegetables and more.
“This would be the most sweeping change in decades to our nation’s efforts to protect the food supply,” Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Thursday during House debate on the bill.
The food industry wants consistent warnings across state lines to reduce the cost of making many different labels. The industry has attracted broad support in the House, where a majority is co-sponsoring the bill.Continue Reading Food warnings
Bill may undo States’ rules on safe food
Marian Burros of the New York Times reports that the U.S. House is, according to the AP, expected to vote Thursday on a bill that would pre-empt all state food safety regulations that are more stringent than federal standards.
According to the National Uniformity for Food Coalition, whose members include trade associations, supermarket chains and food manufacturers, different laws in different states confuse consumers, stating on its web site that, “The citizens of all states deserve the same level of food safety. Food cannot be safe in one state and unsafe in another.”Continue Reading Bill may undo States’ rules on safe food
Law aims to keep unsafe food off the table
Sun Shangwu of the China Daily News reports that the alarming number of cases of contaminated farm produce in markets have prodded Chinese legislators to draft a law improving the quality and safety of agricultural products.
The law is drafted to protect the health of the public and increase the competitiveness of Chinese agricultural products in international markets, said Minister of Agriculture Du Qinglin.
The draft law, with eight chapters and 64 articles, was submitted to the Standing Committee of the 10th National People’s Congress on Saturday for appraisal.Continue Reading Law aims to keep unsafe food off the table
DeLauro urges action on food safety for kids
Joseph Straw of the Journal Register News reports that U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, and a leading national advocacy group have joined in a campaign to increase the safety of food served to youngsters in the nation’s school cafeterias.
DeLauro, co-chairwoman of the bipartisan House Food Safety Caucus, joined the Center for Science in the Public Interest in proposing a school food safety “bill of rights,” including provisions such as easy access to health inspection scores.
Incidences of food-borne illnesses like E. coli and salmonella resulting from school food have doubled in the past decade, but the reason for the increases is unknown, officials said.
“Since children are particularly vulnerable to food-borne illness, schools must be vigilant in their efforts to ensure that cafeterias are not putting children at risk. These changes in law will support parents who want to work with school principals and food-service directors to ensure a safe environment,” DeLauro said.Continue Reading DeLauro urges action on food safety for kids