8-31 IAN Salmonella

 Will the recent outbreak of salmonella in eggs push Congress to pass new food safety laws?  The house of Representatives passed its new version of food safety laws more than a year ago. The senate has been working on its version ever since. So what’s the holdup? “There are a lot of details to be negotiated. Everybody agrees that we want to modernize and improve the food safety system. The problem is how do you do that and the devil’s in the details. Do you do that through more record keeping, through more testing, and if so, how do you pay for all those? American Farm Bureau Federation Food Safety Policy Specialist Kelli Ludlum says her organization prefers 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. “This legislation would modernize and improve the FDA which represents oversight for about 85% of the nation’s food supply. 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 would give FDA more authority to require more testing of products, to hire more inspectors and also help the industries do things on their own so that not all of this is regulatory oversight but it really is a partnership.”  Yeah, but the salmonella problem falls under poultry product which is USDA. That’s confusing and troubling.