Food Safety Reform

Last night, I had the fascinating opportunity to be part of a conference call with Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Mike Taylor of the US FDA, Safe Tables and a variety of fabulous bloggers to discuss the new FDA food safety reform bill. As our country has experienced more and more disturbing food recalls, increased cases of E coli and a whole slew of food borne illnesses resulting in many unexpected deaths – its time we take control of our own food safety.

Safe Tables – or S.T.O.P. (Safe tables Our Priority) – provides consumers with excellent resources about current food safety initiatives. They are a “national, nonprofit, public health organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from food borne pathogens”. I would encourage everyone to sign up for their E-Alerts which will be sent to your email address of choice if there are any sudden food recalls or outbreaks that you should know about.

Also, in case you weren’t aware, the new Food Safety reform bill is hoping to accomplish the following:

• Require all facilities to have in place preventive plans to address identified hazards and prevent adulteration, and give FDA access to these plans and relevant documentation;
• Expand FDA access to records;
• Allow FDA to recognize laboratory accreditation bodies to help ensure U.S. food testing labs meet high quality standards and require results from food testing performed by these labs to be reported to FDA;
• Require importers to verify the safety of foreign suppliers and imported food, provide that FDA require certification for high-risk foods, and deny entry to a food that lacks certification or that is from a foreign facility that has refused U.S. inspectors;
• Increase FDA inspections at all food facilities, providing for annual inspections of high-risk facilities and inspections of other facilities at least once every four years;
• Enhance food-borne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting and usefulness of data on food-borne illnesses;
• Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a pilot project to test and evaluate new methods for rapidly and effectively tracking/tracing fruits and vegetables in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak;.
• Give FDA the authority to mandate recall of a food product if a company fails to voluntarily recall product upon FDA’s request;
• Empower FDA to suspend a food facility’s registration if there is a reasonable probability that food from the facility will cause serious adverse health consequences or death;
• Direct FDA to help food companies protect their products from intentional contamination; and
• Increase funding for FDA’s food safety activities through increased appropriations and targeted fees for domestic and foreign facilities.

This information was found at MeatAmi.com.

So what did I learn on this phone call? First of all, it is going to take some time. All of these farms and food processing centers need to be brought up to speed. The Senator was clear to explain that small farms will not be targeted, however processors will be and the FDA would ideally have the authority to enforce new FDA regulations on the spot with further and increased inspections.

The Senator also explained that state and local government would need to work much more closely and have better integration in order to enforce these regulations.

And then there are imported foods. They would need to be equally processed and held up to the same standard as domestic foods. Did you know that we currently inspect less than 1% of imported foods? Yeah. Wow.

I have to admit. This is an ambitious plan. I’m not sure how long it will take or how the consistency will be enforced or how much it will cost. The Senator did mention that there is enough bi-partisan support for this bill to give it the momentum it needs. But, I dunno. We have a long way to go, baby. But at least the work has begun and food safety has become a priority (amongst many others).

Finally, it left me wondering what WE can do. You and me, consumers, wheeling our carts through the grocery store with wrestling kids in tow. How can we put pressure on the large farms and corporations to move more quickly with these new regulations? How can we hold the folks who make and handle our food accountable? Because you and I both know that corporations get a certain “giddy-up” if they feel any pressure from their consumers. So, while I brainstorm, consider your food and its safety and do what you can to support the new FDA food reform bill.

A quick side-bar…

BlogHer is hosting a conference call with Senator Jeff Merkley about the future of health care on Wednesday, Oct. 21. Interested in being a part of this call? You better get a move on. They are taking the first 20 bloggers who respond here. They hosted an amazing conference call with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi discussing health care reform earlier today.

Also, I am heading to Washington DC next week to be learn more about teen over the counter medicine abuse (StopMedicineAbuse.org) and the Five Moms who are working in conjunction with OTCsafety.org and CHPA. (Remember when I got interview their spokesperson Chandra Wilson awhile back?) These are great people and this is an important initiative. I’m very excited and will be posting more later. So stay tuned.