Bipartisan Senate Food Safety Bill Would Assess New Importer Fees, Impose New Requirements on Importers, Etc.

Highlights of FDA Food Safety Modernization Act

According to a press release from Senator Durbin, S. 510 would:

Importer verification - require importers to verify the safety of foreign suppliers and imported food.

Additional importer fees - increase funding for FDA's food safety activities through increased appropriations and targeted fees for domestic and foreign facilities.

(S. 510 authorizes the assessment and collection of fees, beginning in fiscal year 2010, including fees on importers to cover the administrative costs of a voluntary qualified importer program, reinspection at a port of entry, and food recall expenses. See S. 510 for details on fees for domestic facilities. The fees established by S. 510 would be determined by FDA based on the methodology outlined in the legislation and published in the Federal Register.)

Certification for high-risk foods - allow the FDA to require certification for high-risk foods, and to deny entry to a food that lacks certification or that is from a foreign facility that has refused U.S. inspectors.

Lab accreditation - allow FDA to (i) recognize laboratory accreditation bodies to ensure U.S. food testing labs meet high quality standards and require food testing performed by these labs to be reported to FDA and (ii) enable qualified 3rd parties to certify that foreign food facilities comply with U.S. food safety standards.

Inspection - increase FDA inspections at all food facilities, including annual inspections of high-risk facilities and inspections of other facilities at least once every four years.

Traceability - require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a pilot project to test and evaluate new methods for rapidly and effectively tracking/tracing fruits and vegetables in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak.

Mandatory recall - give FDA the authority to order a mandatory recall of a food product when a company fails to voluntarily recall the product upon FDA's request.

Surveillance - enhance food-borne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data on food-borne illnesses.

Registration suspension - empower FDA to suspend a food facility's registration if there is a reasonable probability that food from the facility will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.

U.S. food defense - direct FDA to help food companies protect their products from intentional contamination and calls for a national strategy to protect the U.S. food supply from terrorist threats and rapidly respond to food emergencies.

Hazard analysis - require all facilities to have in place preventive plans to address identified hazards and prevent adulteration, and give FDA access to these plans and relevant documentation.

Records - expand FDA access to records in a food emergency.

¹The bill is also cosponsored by Senators Dodd (D-CT), Alexander (R-TN), Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chambliss (R-GA).

(See ITT's Online Archives or 03/03/09 news, 09030310, for BP summary of H.R. 999, Keeping America's Food Safe Act of 2009,which would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to improve food safety. H.R. 999 was sponsored by two Republicans and has no other co-sponsors to date.

See ITT's Online Archives or 02/18/09 news, 09021820, for BP summary of H.R. 759, the FDA Globalization Act, which is sponsored by former House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Dingell and has eight other Democratic co-sponsors.)

See ITT's Online Archives or 03/05/09 news, 09030550, for BP summary announcing the introduction of S. 510.

See future issue of ITT for BP summary of another FDA food safety bill, H.R. 875, which is sponsored by Representative DeLauro (D-CT) and has 39 Democratic co-sponsors.)

Press release on the introduction of S. 510 available at http://durbin.senate.gov/showRelease.cfm?releaseId=308982

Text of S. 510 available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?c111:./temp/c111KLuX0s.