Senators Ask For Study On Feasibility Of Single Food Safety Agency

Press Release

U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) today called for a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study into the feasibility of creating a single food agency to increase efficiencies, reduce costs and improve safety. Each year 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from eating unsafe food. The annual costs associated with these foodborne illnesses, including medical costs and productivity losses from missed work, are about $14 billion.

"The fragmented federal food safety system has raised concerns for decades. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has long reported that the system is in need of transformation and has resulted in inconsistent oversight, ineffective coordination, and inefficient use of resources," the Senators wrote. "Recognizing the need to improve food safety oversight effectiveness and efficiency, several other countries have taken steps to streamline and consolidate their food safety functions…Given concerns about the fragmented federal food safety system in the United States and potential lessons to be learned from consolidation efforts in other countries, we request GAO's assistance."

In January, the Senators joined with U.S. Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) in introducing the Safe Food Act of 2015, which would create a single, independent food safety agency. Currently food safety oversight is split up among 15 different agencies, resulting in a patchwork where no single voice guides industry, retailers and consumers. The Safe Food Act would: transfer and consolidate food safety authorities for inspections, enforcement and labeling into a single food safety agency; provide authority to require the recall of unsafe food; require risk assessments and preventive control plans to reduce adulteration; authorize enforcement actions to strengthen contaminant performance standards; improve foreign food import inspections; and require full food traceability to better identify sources of outbreaks.

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