Single food safety agency bill reintroduced

Safe Food Act would transfer and consolidate all food safety authorities from USDA and FDA to one agency.

June 27, 2019

2 Min Read
Single food safety agency bill reintroduced

Currently, food safety oversight is split up among 15 different federal agencies that administer at least 30 laws to regulate food safety. This fragmentation results in a patchwork system where no single voice guides industry, retailers and consumers. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) introduced the Safe Food Act of 2019, which would create a single, independent food safety agency.

“Despite almost a decade since Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act, data continues to show more recalls and sicknesses from food outbreaks,” DeLauro said. “Preventable foodborne illnesses are putting people’s lives at risk unnecessarily, and the need for additional reform is urgent. That is why I am proud to join Sen. Durbin in reintroducing this bill to ensure that we have a single person being held accountable for food safety, research, prevention, inspections, investigations and labeling. We need a commonsense, 21st-century way of ensuring food safety — and a single food safety agency is it.”

“Our food safety system is fragmented, outdated and in desperate need of repair,” Durbin said. “I’m reintroducing this bill with Rep. DeLauro and my colleagues in the Senate because, as it stands, our nation’s broken food safety system sickens 48 million Americans every year. The Safe Food Act would modernize federal food safety laws to protect and improve public health, giving families peace of mind that the food in their refrigerators, pantries and on their dining room tables won’t harm them.”

Related:Risks, costs associated with food safety increasing

The Safe Food Act would:

  • Transfer and consolidate food safety authorities for inspections, enforcement and labeling into a single food safety agency;

  • Require full food traceability to better identify sources of outbreaks;

  • Authorize enforcement actions to strengthen contaminant performance standards, and

  • Strengthen oversight of foreign food facilities and improve food import inspections.

DeLauro and Durbin first introduced similar legislation in 1999. Senate co-sponsors of the Safe Food Act include Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D., Cal.), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.).

The Safe Food Act is also endorsed by a broad coalition of food safety and consumer advocacy organizations, including the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, the National Consumers League and STOP Foodborne Illness.

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