A mid-July conference was the first of two public meetings (the second will be this fall) bringing together the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to discuss the Obama administration’s proposed changes to food safety regulation.
During the meeting, FDA associate commissioner for food protection Jeff Farrar said new rules should be based on sound science and risk analysis and should be applied depending on a company’s size.
Those are encouraging words to hear from federal regulators, unless they would serve to exempt smaller growers (particularly those in the locally grown niche) from meeting the same food safety standards as larger operations.
Farrar’s statement echoes the consensus among produce industry members at the recent Produce Research Symposium put on by the Center for Produce Safety, where the importance of real-world scientific safety metrics and commodity specific rules drew broad support from attendees.
The Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed in the House of Representatives last year, would broaden FDA and other regulators’ oversight of food production.
The Senate hasn’t debated the bill, but President Obama’s food safety working group has outlined its goals for more federal agency involvement in food safety surveillance, enforcement and post-outbreak recovery.
With the likelihood that new regulations will require the FDA to enact mandatory preventive controls for fresh fruits and vegetables — including the power to order a recall if contamination is suspected — the need for lobbying input from produce trade groups in crafting food safety mandates is as self-evident as it is crucial.
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