Newswise — “This bill gives the FDA broad new powers in the area of food safety to inspect processing facilities, recall tainted food products and demand the implementation of control measures to prevent food contamination.
“The bill directs the FDA to control specific food-borne pathogens of significance to public health. We have already seen the agency invoke this power, in the testing of eggs for Salmonella Enteritidis, and so we can expect an expansion of this kind of effort with the passage of this law.
“The FDA is required to use ‘science-based’ approaches to achieve its food safety goals. This will require close cooperation with the scientific community and producers to identify methods that are both effective and practical. An important provision of the bill is to improve the tracking of foods from farm to market. This may be a daunting task in an era of global food production, but it is essential to reducing food-borne disease outbreaks.
“Improving food safety will require the coordinated efforts of federal, state and local agencies, as well as the education of consumers to guard themselves against food-borne diseases.”
--Craig Altier, associate professor of population medicine and diagnostic science at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine
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