Senate Food Safety Bill Uncertain

As we've previously said, the US House of Representatives passsed their food safety bill last month, but when the Senate will follow suit is still up in the air. Whether the Senate takes up Senator Dick Durbin's food safety legislation this fall depends on whether the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee finishes health care reform and has time to look at the food safety bill. While the Senate's bill contains some of the same initiatives as the House's, there are also substantial differences and the Senate will take up Durbin's bill rather than the House version.

Both bills contain provisions that would expand FDA's access to records to determine whether firms are complying with food safety laws, strengthen registration requirements so FDA has accurate, up-to-date information on food facilities and require facilities to have preventive control plans that address hazards before they occur. They'd also both direct FDA to identify the most significant food-borne contaminants and issue performance standards, or benchmarks, for whether a food is safe as well as establish produce safety standards and increase the number of inspections.

To read more on the Senate's food safety bill click here.