The Denver Post - Senate Passes Food-Safety Bill

News Article

By Andrew Zajac

After languishing for more than a year, a food-safety bill that has enjoyed strong bipartisan support passed the Senate on Tuesday, raising prospects for tougher and more extensive federal inspections and other safeguards.

The bill, which President Barack Obama supports, still needs to be reconciled with differing provisions in legislation passed by the House in July 2009.

But the Senate's approval, on a 73-25 vote, was cheered by food-safety experts and advocacy groups as a sign that the long delay could be nearing an end and the nation's food-safety laws will receive their first major overhaul in decades.

The Food Safety and Modernization Act would require improved planning and record-keeping by food producers and would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to recall contaminated food under its own authority, instead of relying on industry cooperation.

"Today's vote will finally give the FDA the tools it needs to help ensure that the food on dinner tables and store shelves is safe," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill, the bill's primary sponsor, said in a statement.

Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, called it a "paradigm shift for the FDA."

"It moves the agency from reacting to outbreaks and recalls to preventing them," he said.

The bill includes several amendments intended to reduce the regulatory burden on small and midsize farms and businesses. The amendments were sponsored or supported by Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo.

"These reforms will not work for Colorado's small farms unless they are flexible and recognize the unique needs of our family farms and ranches," he said in a statement.

Impetus for the reforms came from a series of food-borne-illness outbreaks in recent years involving spinach, jalapeños, cookie dough, peanuts and other food.

A salmonella outbreak over the summer that sickened more than 1,800 and led to the largest egg recall in U.S. history highlighted the need for reform.

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