$1.4 billion safer food bill passed

The Senate passed legislation today to make food safer in the wake of deadly salmonella and  E. coli outbreaks,this will potentially give the government broad new powers to increase inspections of food processing facilities and force companies to recall tainted food.The $1.4 billion bill passed the Senate 73-25.It will also place stricter standards on imported foods.The Senate legislation would allow the FDA to order a recall of tainted foods.

Currently the agency can only negotiate with businesses to order voluntary recalls, It will require larger food processors and manufacturers to register with the Food and Drug Administration and create detailed food safety plans and require the FDA to create new produce safety regulations for producers of the highest-risk vegetables and fruits.The bill would not apply to poultry, meat or processed eggs, which are regulated by the Agriculture Department.

Those foods have long been subject to much more rigorous inspections and oversight than FDA-regulated foods. It will increase inspections of domestic and foreign food facilities, directing the most resources to those operations with the highest risk profiles and establish stricter standards for the safety of imported food.Senate sponsors further softened the bill’s impact on the food industry  including eliminating some fees processors would have to pay and reducing the number of required inspections  to gain votes in the Senate and to make the bill more palatable in the House. Members of both parties voiced concern about the legislation’s impact on small farms and businesses when a different version of the bill passed that chamber in 2009.

The federal Centers for Disease Control  estimated that thousands die and tens of millions of Americans are sickened  from foodborne illnesses each year.