U.S. Senator Kristen Gillibrand has announced a plan that would improve food safety throughout the country.
The plan calls for improving inspections, recall responses and public education while also mandating that ground beef be inspected for E. coli.
“In America, in 2009, it is unconscionable that food is still going straight to our kitchens, school cafeterias and restaurants without being properly tested to ensure its safety,” said Gillibrand, who is a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “It’s spreading too many diseases and costing too many lives. We need to do a better job of catching contaminated food before it ever comes close to a kitchen table.”
According to a report from Gillibrand’s office, each year 573,252 people in Queens become infected with a food-borne illness. The overall total for New York City is about 2.1 million.
A major component of Gillibrand’s plan is improving ground beef testing through the E. Coli Eradication Act. A federal requirement for such testing does not currently exist, and only some grinders voluntarily do so. This proposed legislation would require all grinders to test their ground beef before it is ground and before it is combined with other components.
Additional legislation being co-sponsored by Gillibrand, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, would improve the regulation of other foods, such as fruits and vegetables. There would be a focus on prevention, expanded access to food processing facility records, the establishment of oversight for high quality testing labs, improved detection and increased Food and Drug Administration resources.
More would also be done in regards to the safety of foods imported from other countries.
Gillibrand is also proposing changes to recall responses. She has introduced that Safe Food for Schools Act, which “would protect the 31 million schoolchildren who participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast programs by requiring federal agencies to issue proper alerts to school.”
The senator is seeking improvements to the food recall process. She wants to give authority to the FDA to order mandatory food recalls if a company does not do so voluntarily.
The final part of Gillibrand’s plan is to increase public education through the Consumer Recall Notification Act. It would give more information to health professionals about illnesses related to food, develop food safety advisory committees, enable the FDA to share information with facilities registered with it and confidential information with the public if the need arose, standardize advisory formats and require on-site notifications.
“My plan addresses the gaps in the inspection process and improves recalls and public education, so parents have access to the information to keep their families safe,” Gillibrand said.
