FDA Starts Electronic Food Safety Website

On Tuesday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started the Reportable Food Registry, an electronic portal that food industry officials must use to alert the FDA quickly when they find their products might sicken or kill people or animals. Organizations have now been required to notify the FDA within 24 hours if they find a reasonable probability that an article of food will cause severe health problems or death to a person or an animal. This could be from bacterial contamination, allergen mislabeling or elevated levels of certain chemical components.

As a Chicago research firm reported, food safety made the list for consumer concerns this year after plenty of recalls left Americans sick and worried that the government wasn't doing enough. "By fostering real-time submission to the FDA of information on food safety hazards, the registry enhances FDA's ability to act quickly to prevent foodborne illness," said Michael Taylor, senior advisor to the FDA commissioner. "Working with the food industry, we can swiftly remove contaminated products from commerce and keep them out of consumers' hands."

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