Food Safety Legislation: The Devil Is in the Details

There is a bill making its way through the US House of Representatives – House Resolution 875, the “Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009” (meanwhile, a similar piece of legislation – S 3385 – is being kicked around the US Senate).  HR 875 is a well-intentioned response to recent food safety problems in the US, ranging from Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease coming from tainted meat, to melamine in milk and pet food, and on to E. coli and salmonella found in spinach and nuts.

Representatives seem to believe the FDA is incapable of policing the nation’s food production and distribution systems – ironic, considering that Congress holds the purse strings and has saddled the FDA with an increasing number of enforcement obligations while reducing the FDA’s budget and head count.

Rather than strengthen the FDA’s hand, the House proposes to create yet another agency, the Food Safety Administration, under the Department of Health and Human Services.  The idea is ostensibly to take a more straightforward approach to food safety – to do away with a “patchwork food safety system”.  Great in theory, but if history tells us anything about Congress, it’s that they’re not very good at paring, streamlining, or simplifying anything (see “pork”, “earmarks”).

It’s not that we don’t need a food safety management system.  What we need is a practical, manageable, fair, and effective system – something I don’t see us getting from Congress.

Alternatives such as the ISO 22000 food safety management standard don’t seem to get nearly as much consideration.  Why do you suppose that is?  Do you think legislation is the way to go?  Could we hear from some farmers and others in the food supply chain?

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Originally published in 2009 by Bizmanualz, Inc. under the title Food Safety Legislation: The Devil Is in the Details. All rights reserved. Reproduction permitted with attribution only. www.bizmanualz.com