Food safety

The recall of 380 million eggs — almost 32 million dozen — due to a possible salmonella contamination is sparking calls for the quick passage of food-safety legislation after the August recess.

The recent outbreak has sickened hundreds of people across multiple states.

The Senate health panel unveiled a manager's package last week that grants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded powers to recall tainted food, quarantine geographical areas and access food producers’ records. Similar legislation cleared the House in July 2009.

"This outbreak is just further proof of how quickly a food borne illness can multiply across states, sickening Americans and causing widespread distrust over the safety of our food system," Senate Health Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said in a statement Thursday. "And it adds to the urgency that, for far too long, has told the story of why comprehensive food safety legislation is needed. Our 100-year-old plus food safety structure needs to be modernized."

Harkin went on to detail how the egg contamination may have played out differently had the bill's provisions been in effect.

"The bill pending in Congress would offer additional protection against such an outbreak in the future," Harkin said. "For example, the bill would give FDA authority to initiate a mandatory recall of the eggs had the company involved refused to do so; the trace back provisions in the bill would help public health agencies identify the source in a future outbreak; and the new importation provisions in the bill would apply to any eggs imported into the U.S. from abroad, which would certainly help prevent against a Salmonella outbreak from foreign eggs. Our bill also mandates that firms that manufacture and process food implement preventive controls to help prevent food-borne contamination and ensure the safety of food."

The Senate is expected to take up the compromise shortly after returning from the August recess.

A provision banning the toxic chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) was left out of a bipartisan food safety compromise unveiled Thursday by the Senate health panel.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), the provision's champion, said she would offer an amendment banning BPA from baby bottles, sippy cups, baby food and infant formula when the food safety bill comes to the Senate floor.

"I believe that we need legislation to protect consumers, especially babies and toddlers, from harmful chemicals," Feinstein said. "Because of their smaller size and stage of development, babies and children are particularly at risk from the harmful health effects of BPA."

The food safety bill would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to recall tainted food, quarantine geographical areas and access food producers’ records. 

The House passed its version of food safety legislation in July 2009.

The Senate Health panel is scheduled to release a bipartisan food safety compromise later Thursday, along with a Congressional Budget Office score, several senators said. 

The bill would give the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the power to recall tainted food, quarantine geographical areas and access food producers’ records. 

The compromise was worked out between six senators who have been working on the issue: Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.); food-safety bill authors Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.); and lead co-sponsors Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.). 

The House passed its version of food-safety legislation in July 2009.

In the Senate, outstanding issues included Sen. Dianne Feinstein's (D-Calif.) bid to ban the chemical bisphenol-A (BPA) from food and beverage containers and Sen. Jon Tester's (D-Mont.) attempt to exempt small farmers from some of the new regulations. It's not clear yet how the two issues were resolved. 

"Any 100-year-old-plus structure — like our nation’s food safety system — needs improvements," the six lawmakers said in a statement.

"With this announcement today, we aim to not just patch and mend our fragmented food safety system, we hope to reinforce the infrastructure, close the gaps and create a systematic, risk-based and balanced approach to food safety in the United States. 

"The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act will place more emphasis on prevention of food-borne illness and will provide new tools to respond to food-safety problems. We look forward to working with our respective leaderships to take up this bipartisan legislation as soon as possible." 

The Hill first reported on this development on Tuesday.

The Senate has reached a tentative agreement on food-safety legislation and will brief staffers Thursday, a Senate staffer said, although it's still unclear how the bill might move forward. The panel is also scheduled to post the manager's package and a Congressional Budget Office score, another source said.

Food safety advocates immediately applauded the news.

"It's a clear signal that this is going to happen when they come back in September," said Sandra Eskin, director of the Pew Health Group's Food Safety Campaign.

The Senate bill, introduced by Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), cleared the Senate health panel late last year on a 16-0 vote.

The House passed its own version of food safety legislation in July 2009.

The Senate hopes to pass the child nutrition bill by unanimous consent Thursday afternoon, a Democratic leadership aide said.

The $4.5 billion proposal, sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), would expand eligibility for school meal programs; establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools; and provide a 6-cent increase for each school lunch to help cafeterias serve healthier meals.

Lincoln’s bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Agriculture Committee in March, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said repeatedly that he wants to get to the bill before the August recess.

The House has yet to take up its version of the measure.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said this week that Democrats are hoping to pass a child nutrition bill before lawmakers leave town for the August recess. 

The $4.5 billion proposal, sponsored by Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), would expand eligibility for school meal programs; establish nutrition standards for all foods sold in schools; and provide a 6-cent increase for each school lunch to help cafeterias serve healthier meals.

It’s a much smaller expansion than the $10 billion proposal endorsed by the White House earlier in the year, but it would mark the first non-inflationary hike in school-lunch reimbursements in almost four decades.

Lincoln’s bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Agriculture Committee in March, and Reid says he’s hopeful he can rally the bipartisan support he’ll need to push it through the upper chamber in the next week and a half.

“It would be nice if we could do something with child nutrition — we’re going to try to do that,” Reid told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday. “I’m told that that could be bipartisan.”

House lawmakers are pushing the issue as well. Earlier this month, the House Education and Labor Committee sent an $8 billion child nutrition bill to the floor. 

Reid said he also wants to move food safety legislation before the August break.

House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) called on the Food and Drug Administration to regulate food dyes Tuesday. Her comments come after the European Union required foods sold in Europe to include a warning label if they contain artificial food dyes, which she said have been linked to health and behavioral problems especially in children.

"This is a sensible policy and a smart move to help protect the health and well-being of children in Europe," Slaughter said in a statement. "For too long, studies have raised questions about the impact food dyes have on the health and behavior of children. It's my hope that the Food and Drug Administration reviews the science on this issue and considers implementing a warning label that empowers parents to make informed decisions prior to purchasing food for their children."

More than half of the country’s adults support a blanket ban on junk food in schools, according to a national survey conducted this month.

Fifty-two percent of adults said they would prohibit soft drinks and sugary snacks in schools, the Rasmussen poll found, while 40 percent of those surveyed said that kids should continue to have access to those foods.

The poll arrives as healthcare experts and children advocates are warning of the cost and health concerns associated with the country’s growing obesity epidemic. Between 30 percent and 40 percent of the growth in healthcare costs is due to the increase in obesity over the last 15 years, according to Ken Thorpe, executive director of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease. Read more...