Good news amidst all the partisan bickering: This morning, the U.S. Senate put all that aside and passed historic legislation to protect consumers from preventable food-borne illness. The victory was a 3-1 margin. Now it's on to the House.
 
Elizabeth Hitchcock from PIRG said “according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in four Americans get sick, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and more than 5000 people die each year from eating contaminated food. It’s unacceptable that this continues in the United States in the 21st Century. The House of Representatives passed its food safety bill more than a year ago. Since then, there have been more than 100 voluntary recalls of FDA regulated foods because of pathogens like salmonella and E coli."

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act will protect consumers by:

-         Requiring the food manufacturers to have food-safety plans that will prevent contaminated food from reaching consumers.

-         Setting responsible standards for produce safety, so parents can have confidence that fresh fruits and vegetables are nutritious and safe to serve to their children.

-         Requiring more frequent inspections of food facilities to make sure they are following the rules.

-         Setting standards for imported food to end the practice by foreign producers of dumping unsafe food on the American market.

Unfortunately, the New York Times made a scary observation: Despite unusual bipartisan support on Capitol Hill and a strong push from the Obama administration, the bill could still die because there might not be enough time for the usual haggling between the Senate and House of Representatives, which passed its own version last year. Top House Democrats said that they would consider simply passing the Senate version to speed approval.


Let's hope congress works quickly to finalize the bill.

---

---