FDA starts on food-safety rules

2011 law going into effect to help prevent contamination

Workers harvest lettuce in California’s Salinas Valley. A regulatory proposal issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration requires produce farms with a “high risk” of contamination to create new hygiene, soil and temperature controls.
Workers harvest lettuce in California’s Salinas Valley. A regulatory proposal issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration requires produce farms with a “high risk” of contamination to create new hygiene, soil and temperature controls.

— A federal food-safety law passed two years ago after poisonings sickened hundreds of Americans is being implemented by the Obama administration.

One of two regulatory proposals issued Friday by the Food and Drug Administration to carry out the core of the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act would give companies that sell in the U.S. a year to develop a formal plan for preventing the causes of food-borne illness. The second would force produce farms with a “high risk” of contamination to develop new hygiene, soil and temperature controls.

The Food Safety Modernization Act is the biggest change to food industry oversight since 1938. It was prompted in part by recalls of tainted cookie dough, spinach, jalapenos and peanuts that killed at least nine people and sickened more than 700 in 2008 and 2009.

The act “shifts the food safety focus from reactive to preventive,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “We are establishing a science-based, flexible system to better prevent food borne illness.”

Almost 48 million people contract food-borne illnesses in the U.S. each year, leading to 130,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The law’s supporters say it will curb those illnesses, which cost the U.S. an estimated $152 billion a year.

The rules were proposed two years ago to the day after President Barack Obama signed the $1.4 billion bill that gave the FDA more power to police domestic and international producers, carry out inspections and force recalls of tainted products in an effort to steer food safety toward preventing contamination rather than responding once problems occur.

The regulations are subject to a 120-day public comment period and may change before taking effect.

“The FDA knows that food safety, from farm to fork, requires partnership with industry, consumers, local, state and tribal governments,and our international trading partners,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in the statement. “Our proposed rules reflect the input we have received from these stakeholders and we look forward to working with the public as they review the proposed rules.”

Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, said the proposed rules will encompass preventive control for food facilities and a produce safety rule that the covers growing and packing of produce on farms.

“These are two real substantive rules that aim for prevention and protection of the food supply,” Taylor said. “It’s a big step.”

The FDA said it will issue additional rules related to verifying that food products from overseas are as safe as domestic products, and to accreditation standards for third-party food-safety audits overseas.

Business, Pages 25 on 01/05/2013

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