Senate Passes Food Safety Overhaul
Reuters reports:
The Senate passed the largest overhaul of the U.S. food safety system in decades on Tuesday, a response to massive recalls such as last summer's recall of half a billion eggs in a salmonella outbreak.
The Senate voted 73-25 to pass the bill. The House of Representatives backed a different version in July 2009. With their post-election session due to end by mid-December, lawmakers have just weeks to resolve their differences and send legislation to President Barack Obama to sign into law.
"I urge the House -- which has previously passed legislation demonstrating its strong commitment to making our food supply safer -- to act quickly on this critical bill, and I applaud the work that was done to ensure its broad bipartisan passage in the Senate," Obama said in a statement.
The Senate legislation would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the power to order a food recall when a company refuses the agency's request that it do so voluntarily.
It also would allow the agency to step up inspections at the riskiest food processing plants, expand FDA capabilities to trace the source of foodborne disease outbreaks such as E. coli and salmonella, and increase the number of FDA inspectors at food plants.
"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," said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, a sponsor of the bill.
Pressure to overhaul the food safety system has grown after high-profile outbreaks of illness involving lettuce, peppers, eggs, peanuts, spinach and, most recently, eggs that have shaken public confidence in the safety of the food supply.
U.S. regulation of food safety is fragmented -- split up among federal agencies. Consumer activists have complained that industry is given too much power to police itself.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversees the bulk of the U.S. food supply, but about 20 percent of the supply is overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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