Looking for New Food Safety Laws

Looking for New Food Safety Laws. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. The House of Representatives passed a version of new food safety law more than a year ago. The Senate has been working on its version ever since. So what's the hold up? LUDLUM: There are a lot of details to be negotiated. I mean, everybody agrees that we want to modernize and improve the food safety system. That's not negotiable. The problem is how you do that and this is kind of where the devil is in the details. Do you do that through more recordkeeping, through more testing, through more regulatory requirements and, if so, how do you pay for all those? American Farm Bureau Food Safety Policy Specialist Kelli Ludlum says her organization favors the Senate's version, called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, because it focuses on where there is the most risk of a food product being contaminated. LUDLUM: This legislation would modernize and improve the Food and Drug Administration, which represents oversight for about 85 percent of the nation's food supply, basically everything except meat and poultry products, which are under the jurisdiction of USDA. So everything from processed foods to fruits and vegetables to frozen food products. The legislation t would give FDA more authorities to require more testing of products, hire more inspectors and also help the industry do things on their own so that not all of this is regulatory oversight, but it really is a partnership. Ludlum points out that if the legislation isn't passed this year, the process will have to start all over again with a new Congress in January. LUDLUM: There are a lot of folks who believe that the most recent recall of eggs will speed up the process for the food safety bill and that may or may not be true. Earlier this year we saw a recall of cookie dough and there have been other high-profile products recalled and really that hasn't seemed to influence the timeline as much as the normal Senate schedule and clearing legislative hurdles out of the way. She talks about the value of risk-based regulation. LUDLUM: Where is the risk and how do you regulate that risk? We believe that there are certain risks that may be present on a farm, but certainly not all of them go back to the farm level. So, for example, it doesn't make sense to regulate a soybean producer who is growing a product that is highly processed before it reaches the consumer in the same manner that you would a spinach farmer who grows a product that is largely consumed intact and fresh by the consumer. So we've advocated for a look at risk and appropriate regulation based on risk of the commodities. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.