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alp227

(31,961 posts)
Tue Jul 17, 2012, 02:59 AM Jul 2012

Groups Urge Action on Food Safety Law

Source: NYT

Ten consumer groups that helped promote a landmark food safety law passed in 2010 say the Obama administration is holding up the rules that would put it into effect, a delay they say could cost money and lives this summer, the peak season for food contamination outbreaks.

The Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed with broad bipartisan support, was the first major overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration’s food safety laws since the 1930s. It gives the agency, which is responsible for the safety of most of the country’s food supply, more control over food imports as well as broad new powers to set standards to prevent contamination of produce and processed food.

The law was motivated, in part, by the growing globalization of the nation’s food supply. Food imports have more than tripled over the past decade — about 80 percent of seafood is imported, for example — and currently, the F.D.A. inspects less than one pound in a million of imported foods.

But the F.D.A. rules that are needed to carry out the law have been under review by the Office of Management and Budget in the White House since December, and consumer health advocates say there has been no explanation for what they describe as a lengthy delay.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/science/consumer-groups-criticize-delay-on-food-safety-law.html

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Groups Urge Action on Food Safety Law (Original Post) alp227 Jul 2012 OP
hmm... the NYT can't read their own paper? Yeah Its Spin Jul 2012 #1
Budget Cuts Will Kill Safety Program That Caught Salmonella, E. Coli, Listeria Outbreaks Yeah Its Spin Jul 2012 #2
 

Yeah Its Spin

(236 posts)
1. hmm... the NYT can't read their own paper?
Tue Jul 17, 2012, 03:38 AM
Jul 2012

“In January, Mr. Obama signed a food safety law that provides broad new authority to the Food and Drug Administration,” wrote Robert Pear in Friday’s Times, in an article about the Congressional appropriations mess. But House Republicans, he added, had voted “to cut the agency’s budget.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/opinion/nocera-killing-jobs-and-making-us-sick.htmlb

 

Yeah Its Spin

(236 posts)
2. Budget Cuts Will Kill Safety Program That Caught Salmonella, E. Coli, Listeria Outbreaks
Tue Jul 17, 2012, 03:56 AM
Jul 2012

Food safety advocates are frantically trying to save a little-known produce inspection program that accounts for 80 percent of all government testing of produce and has prompted recalls of tainted fruits and vegetables around the country, including an April recall of bagged spinach contaminated with salmonella.

The Microbiological Data Program (MDP), part of the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), has been slashed from the Obama administration's 2013 budget request, which says that other government agencies have better resources with which to test produce. Food safety advocates are worried that a major source of detection for salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens will leave American consumers vulnerable.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/budget-cuts-kill-safety-program-caught-salmonella-outbreaks/story?id=16755177#.UAUaS5HgxUA

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