Klobuchar Fights for Food Safety Enforcement

Press Release

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar today joined Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and four other senators to introduce legislation that would strengthen criminal penalties against individuals and corporations who knowingly violate food safety standards and endanger American lives. The Food Safety Accountability Act would increase the sentences that prosecutors can seek for individuals who knowingly contaminate the food supply from a maximum of three years in prison to up to 10 years. These offenses, now considered misdemeanors, would be felonies under the bill.

"When companies or individuals make the conscious decision to allow unsafe and contaminated food to wind up in our food supply -- knowing full well that consumers may be harmed or even killed by it -- they should face stiff consequences and be held accountable," Klobuchar said.

The bill follows a wave of recalls of tainted food products, including a nationwide recall of certain eggs last year. In 2008, the Peanut Corporation of America sold peanut products that it knew were contaminated with salmonella, resulting in one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history. The salmonella outbreak left nine people dead, including three Minnesotans, and left hundreds more sick.

Klobuchar has helped lead the effort to reform the nation's food safety system and was a cosponsor of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which strengthens the Food and Drug Administration's ability to ensure a safer food supply and help prevent outbreaks from happening in the first place. The measure was signed into law in December 2010.

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