WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Edolphus “Ed” Towns (NY-10), this week voted to protect the nation’s food supply by improving inspections and oversight of the food we eat.  The bipartisan Food Safety Enhancement Act, which passed the House by a vote of 283 to 142, grants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority and resources it needs to prevent food-borne illnesses from occurring and the tools to respond if such instances take place.  The legislation also increases the food industry’s responsibility for overseeing the safety of their own products while providing the FDA with new and enhanced tools to the agency accountable.

“For years, we took the safety of our nation’s food supply for granted,” said Rep. Towns.  “As our food supply becomes more global and our farming more industrialized, we become more vulnerable to food-borne illnesses.  By increasing and expanding the FDA’s authority, this legislation will help us give consumers peace of mind once again that the food they buy and feed their families with will not make them sick.”

While many Americans assume our food supply is among the safest in the world, public health officials estimate that every year about 76 million people in the United States become sick, and 5,000 of them die from food-borne illnesses.  Since 2006, the United States has witnessed numerous outbreaks of dangerous infections in common foods – from spinach and tomatoes, to peanut butter and ground beef.  This legislation will help protect the public health against such outbreaks and update our federal food safety laws.

Furthermore, the Food Safety Enhancement Act increases the number and scope of inspections for food production facilities and enhances the safety of foreign food imports.  It requires the FDA to issue standards for ensuring the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables, and strengthens penalties on food facilities that fail to comply with safety requirements.

To better protect Americans’ health, it gives the FDA new tools and authority to issue mandatory recalls of tainted foods and remove these products from the market safely and efficiently.  It also significantly expands the FDA’s ability to rapidly identify and trace the history of a tainted food product in the event of an illness outbreak.

“This bill finally gives the FDA the tools it needs to prevent outbreaks of food-borne illness and to effectively remove food from the marketplace if an outbreak occurs,” said Rep. Towns.  “Every parent should feel confident about what they feed their children, and this legislation goes a long way toward making sure they do.”

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