U.S. Government: More Food Safety Initiatives
There are more food safety initiatives floating around
Washington now* than at any time in history and following a series of recent
food scares the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) appears more willing
to seek additional authority to regulate food safety than they have in many
years.
Assistant FDA Commissioner David Acheson told a House
subcommittee this week that his agency lacks needed authority over matters of
food safety, a position the FDA has not taken in a very long while. The FDA
is considering several plans and expects to propose new legislation asking
for more authority within the next few weeks. Any request is apt to include
components to prevent contamination, to utilize risk-based inspections, and to
provide faster response times.
The FDA announcement comes as Congressional Democrats
are showing impatience with what they consider to be the Bush
administration's lack of action to strengthen the nation's food-safety
system. Among other things, they point to the Department of Health and Human
Services, parent agency of FDA, and its rejection, earlier this year, of an
FDA proposal to regulate produce. Democrats have proposed fixing the system
through such measures as establishing a single-food agency, giving the FDA
new recall authority, and allowing the agency to charge importers user fees
to fund food inspection.
The most recent
Democratic initiative came this week in a proposal from Rep. John
Dingell (D-MI). The Dingell bill (H.R.3610) would channel all imported food
and drugs through 13 ports of entry and assess importers $500 million in fees
with which to fund FDA inspections on incoming shipments of these products.
The Dingell bill would also restrict food imports to countries or facilities
that meet U.S.
safety standards, require all food and drugs to be
labeled by country of origin, and give FDA the power to mandate food recalls.
No one can predict what will happen with the Dingell
proposal, although it drew sharp criticism from industry and government
officials in Chicago, Houston, Miami
and other cities which could be shut out of the food and pharmaceutical
trade. The FDA has yet to take a position on the bill, and a cabinet-level
group set up by President Bush is not expected to present its own import
safety plan before November.
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*Related
legislation includes:
1. Imported Food
Security Act of 2007 [S.1776]
2. Human and Pet
Food Safety Act of 2007 [S.1274] [H.R.2108]
3. Consumer Food
Safety Act of 2007 [H.R.3624];
4. Food and Drug
Administration Amendments Act of 2007
5. Food and Drug
Administration Revitalization Act [S.1082]
6. Assured Food
Safety Act of 2007 [H.R.2997]
7. Department of
Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2008
[H.R.2638]
8. Safe Food Act of 2007 [S.654] [H.R.1148]
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