A law signed by President Obama on Tuesday gives federal regulators new authority and enforcement tools to oversee the safety of the country's food supply and requires the food industry to take preventative measures to reduce the risk of spreading food-borne illnesses.
The new law, dubbed the Food Safety Modernization Act, expands the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and authorizes the FDA to issue mandatory recalls of contaminated foods.
US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the new food safety law is "long overdue."
Food-borne illness cases in the US have risen significantly since the 1990s, with an average of one in six Americans becoming sick and about 3,000 dying from contaminated food each year, Sebelius said.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that, while the food industry is usually cooperative when regulators issue a recall, there have been instances where the FDA had to push state authorities to take action during illness outbreaks and even take food companies to court.
The FDA can also require food producers to issue and implement preventative action plans to stop illness outbreaks before they start.
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6 comments:
The FDA, responsible for more deaths than any other agency in the country is going to protect us. Will they start with all these very large corporate owned farms, where these illnesses begin or will the jerk the chains of every small farmer in America forcing them out of farming? The same ones that dump millions into the campaign coffers of those sponsoring this bill. Another boost for Monsanto, Kraft Foods, General Mills, etc. Why doesn't this article reveal the securing agency is Homeland Security?
to 10:01 ditto
And the shame of it all is that it could have been stopped in the lame duck session but was passed UNANIMOUSLY by the Senate. I will never forgive Republicans for that.
Most food born illnesses are because of improper food handling, period!
I know of people who don't wash produce when they bring it home from the grocery store and or produce stand before eating it.
I know of people who don't rinse their chicken and pork chops before cooking them and don't fully cook thier foods either! These are the people who end up sick!
If people would stop and think, they'd be better off and a whole lot healthier too!
11;47 say that to the folks who get sick off of tainted peanut butter and other processed products.
you wouldn't have to wash your produce if those beaners didn't crap in the same fields they were picking!
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