Senators push for better food-safety info
March 16, 2010 Arizona Daily Star | Link to article
WASHINGTON - Democratic leaders have agreed to advance part of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's plan to put food-recall information in customers' mailboxes and on grocery-store shelves.
The proposal is embodied in legislation Gillibrand unveiled Monday that aims to more widely publicize information about food recalls to retailers and consumers.
"In America in 2010, it is unconscionable that we don't have an effective way to communicate food-borne-illness outbreaks to consumers and health departments," said Gillibrand, D-N.Y. "We need to do a better job of making sure every New Yorker knows when food items are being recalled."
Gillibrand's bill would require food distributors to notify recipients of recalled items within 24 hours after a recall is publicized. Stores, in turn, would be required to post notices on shelves and freezer cases, near products that have been recalled.
And grocery stores that track customer purchases through loyalty cards also would be required to use that information to notify customers who have bought recalled products.
Gillibrand's measure also would require the Food and Drug Administration to alert local health departments and medical professionals whenever the federal government believes there is a reasonable chance that eating the food will cause health problems or death.
Gillibrand is working with Senate leaders, including Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to get her measure added to a food-safety bill the chamber is expected to take up next month.
Portions of her proposal, including the plan to mandate notifications for health professionals, are expected to be included in an amendment to Durbin's food-safety bill, said Gillibrand spokesman Bethany Lesser.
That virtually ensures some of Gillibrand's initiatives will make it into the broad food-safety package, if it is later passed by the Senate.
That measure, which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last November, already would significantly beef up the federal government's power to corral contaminated food. For instance, it would give the FDA broad new powers to issue mandatory recalls in cases where consumption would cause serious adverse health consequences - rather than rely solely on producers to make a voluntary recall.
The bill also would require more frequent FDA inspections of food facilities.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Health Committee, has said the measure is essential to thwart preventable food-borne illnesses that strike an estimated 76 million Americans annually.
