The Senate has passed sweeping legislation to enhance and extend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s authority over food safety standards. How will the new measures affect food producers and consumers?

Following a series of contaminated food outbreaks in the United States, which included tainted eggs, peanut butter and spinach products over the last few years, the Senate on Tuesday passed a sweeping bill that would greatly strengthen the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) oversight of food safety.

The new bill, known as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510), will give the government broader powers to monitor the quality of food processing facilities and enable it to force companies to pull contaminated food products off the market. The $1.4 billion bill would also place stricter standards on food imports.

“Strong food-safety legislation will reduce the risk of contamination and thereby better protect public health and safety, raise the bar for the food industry and deter bad actors,” the National Association of Manufacturers and a number of other trade groups said in a joint industry/consumer letter to the Senate earlier this year. “S. 510 will provide the FDA with the resources and authorities the agency needs to help make prevention the focus of our food safety strategies.”

According to FDA statistics, there are more than 76 million cases of food-borne illness in the U.S. every year, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths. Every day, approximately 13 men, women and children die due to a food-borne illness. Recent national outbreaks of food poisoning highlighted the need to improve the FDA’s safety resources, as the organization has displayed less capability in monitoring food than medical products.

The long-delayed bill went through the Senate with wide bipartisan support, passing in a 73-25 vote in its favor, according to Yahoo! News. Although the House of Representatives passed a slightly different version of the bill earlier and the current act may require some revision from the House, many leaders are considering moving ahead with the Senate’s version to speed final approval.

“Both versions of the bill would grant the FDA new powers to recall tainted foods, increase inspections, demand accountability from food companies and oversee farming,” the New York Times reports. “But neither would consolidate overlapping functions at the Department of Agriculture and nearly a dozen other federal agencies that oversee various aspects of food safety, leaving coordination among the agencies a continuing challenge.”

The Consumerist, a popular consumer affairs blog owned by Consumers Union, estimates that the bill would cover roughly 80 percent of the nation’s food supply, but would not permit stronger FDA oversight among slaughterhouses or most meat and poultry processing plants, which would still fall under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Dept.

Despite gaining widespread support, the new measure has generated some conflict regarding its approach to small versus large food-producing companies.

“The bill has also revealed a divide between the burgeoning local-food movement and major agriculture businesses,” the Washington Post explains. “Small farmers concerned about the cost of new federal regulation were initially opposed to the bill and argued that since most cases of national food-borne illness are caused by large companies, small producers should not be required to meet the same standards.”

The Senate version of the bill sidestepped this problem by including exemptions for smaller, local operations with annual sales under $500,000 from the costly food safety plans expected of larger firms and eliminating certain fee requirements.

“No such exemption exists in the House version, which passed in July 2009,” the Associated Press notes. “The House bill, favored by food safety advocates, includes more money for FDA inspectors and would charge fees to companies to help pay for the increased regulation. It would also include stricter penalties for food manufacturers who violate the law.”

Among the key regulation and enforcement measures included in the bill:

• Food producers will be required to write a plan that identifies contamination risks and outlines strategies to keep food pure;
• The FDA will gain in-depth access to food manufacturers’ records during a contaminated-food emergency;
• Importers will have to verify the quality of the food they are bringing into the U.S.;
• The FDA will be able to deny entry of imported food from any producers that refuse U.S. inspection;
• The FDA will be allowed to temporarily prevent food from being sold if there is a chance it may be contaminated or mislabeled; and
• The FDA will be able to force a company to recall its products instead of merely collaborating with businesses in a voluntary recall.

“Once the Senate works out differences with the House, which passed a similar bill last year, the proposed law will be sent to President Barack Obama for his signature. The White House supports the bill,” MarketWatch explains. “Even after the law takes effect, safety problems are certain to persist given the huge size of the U.S. food supply, an exploding number of producers and a divided regulatory apparatus.”

Related

Strategic Actions to Improve Food Safety

FDA Vows to Crack Down on Food Safety Violators

Beefing Up Food Industry Regulations

Resources

FDA Food Safety Modernization Act
U.S. Senate, Nov. 30, 2010

Joint Consumer/Industry Letter to the Senate in Support of Food Safety Legislation
National Association of Manufacturers, et. al., Jan. 21, 2010

Foodborne Illness-Causing Organisms in the U.S. — What You Need to Know
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, October 2008

Senate Passes Long-Delayed Food Safety Bill
by Brett Michael Dykes
Yahoo! News, Nov. 30, 2010

Senate Passes Sweeping Law on Food Safety
by Gardiner Harris and William Neuman
The New York Times, Nov. 30, 2010

Senate Passes Food Safety Bill That Would Increase FDA Authority
by Chris Morran
The Consumerist, Nov. 30, 2010

Senate Passes Sweeping Food Safety Bill
by Lyndsey Layton
The Washington Post, Nov. 30, 2010

Senate Passes Bill to Boost Food Safety
The Associated Press, Nov. 30, 2010

Senate Approves Sweeping Food-Safety Bill
by Jeffry Bartash
MarketWatch, Nov. 30, 2010