Food Safety Modernization Act Preparation

Food Safety Modernization Act Preparation. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

It's dubbed as the most significant change in the nation's food safety laws since 1938. The Food Safety Modernization Act. The new law signed by President Obama earlier this year puts the focus on preventing food safety problems rather than reacting to them as they occur. Vance Bybee of the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Food Safety Division says it will have varying degrees of impact on producers, processors, and retailers in the state.

BYBEE: You can expect that there are going to be new laws, new authorities given to our federal food safety partners, new responsibilities for growers and processors.
 
The three main components of the law include prevention, detection and response, and import safety. Some provisions are already in place while others continue to be developed for future implementation. For many, the changes are long overdue.

BYBEE: The laws that have been governing food safety and the laws upon which state food safety laws have been based were promulgated in 1938. So imagine the differences in technology and advance in science over that 73 year period.
 
With about 1 in 6 Americans getting sick every year because of foodborne illness, there is hope that the new Act will strengthen the food safety system by expanding the authority of the Food and Drug Administration as it partners with state agencies like ODA. Bybee says the new law will put new emphasis on food production, not just processing. So farmers will need to be ready for FDA to propose new standards.

BYBEE: The FDA is going to be getting involved in how food is grown and harvested. That's specifically mentioned in the act- grown and harvested. They will be working with USDA, the state departments of agriculture, and the Department of Homeland Security to develop these program standards. The standards are going to be minimum standards for safe production.

Bybee says many parts of the new law are still a work in progress, including standards for farmers in the production of food.

BYBEE: The Food Safety Modernization Act is being implemented. Some of the provisions took effect immediately, but many of them- the more difficult ones- are still in the process of being developed.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.