Lawmakers Renew Effort For Single Food Agency
News Date February 20, 2007
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.) renewed their effort to consolidate food safety oversight in this country by reintroducing their Safe Food Act on February 14. The legislation calls for the development of a single food safety agency and the implementation of a food safety program to standardize American food safety activities.
The lawmakers have worked on this effort for over a decade in Congress. They noted a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) which deemed federal oversight of food safety as "high risk" to the economy and public health and safety.
Under current law, food safety monitoring, inspection, and labeling functions are spread across 15 agencies in the federal government, including USDA which oversees meat, poultry and egg products; the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which oversees most other food products; and the U.S. Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) which inspects fish. Durbin and DeLauro said the involvement of so many agencies can result in duplication of responsibilities, service gaps and inconsistencies and confusion about which agency oversees different types of food.
The proposed legislation would establish a new Food Safety Administration. Some of the new responsibilities under the proposed new agency include: (1) regular, but random, inspection of all food processing plants; (2) categorized review process for all foods to monitor and inspect them based on their risk, not their name; (3) increased oversight of imported foods; and (4) established requirements for tracing foods to point of origin. (Contact: Charlie Ingram)