Landmark Food Safety Advanced By House

July 30, 2009

 Landmark Food Safety Advanced By House 

Will Safeguard Against Contamination

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone′s long-fought effort to keep contaminants out of the food supply gained significant congressional momentum on Thursday with the approval by the House of Representatives of Pallone′s Food Safety and Enhancement Act. A decade-long advocate of enhanced safety standards, Pallone said the growth and complexity of a distribution system that sends food from farms to dinner tables faster and cheaper than ever makes the need for protective measures even more important. 

Each year, 76 million people get sick from unsafe food, 325,000 people are hospitalized and 5,000 people die.

In the past two years alone, the food industry has been seriously scarred by the poisonous spread of E. coli, Salmonella and melamine in mainstay items of the food supply, outbreaks that caused widespread illness and deaths. During a recent public hearing, Pallone heard about a three-year-old who suffered kidney failure from contaminated spinach.

"We must do more to improve the food safety system, we have to do a better job of keeping our food products free of contamination, said Pallone. "We get more food from the farm to the dinner table faster and cheaper than ever. But when the safety system comes up short, consumers are exposed to illness and even death. We have the knowledge and ability to make the food system safer, this bill will provide the resources and the standards to get the job done."

"It is in everyone′s interest to restore and maintain confidence in the Nation′s food supply," Pallone said. "Parents need to know the food they feed their children is safe and the food industry needs to have the public′s trust."  

The legislation is largely based on the food provisions of H.R. 759, the Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009, introduced in January by Reps. Dingell, Stupak, and Pallone.  The bill was originally voted out of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, which is chaired by Pallone.