WASHINGTON Two major foodservice industry groups have voiced concerns about an anticipated federal measure that seeks to overhaul the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and address problems with the nation’s food supply.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week issued a discussion draft of the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, which was designed to respond to a series of recent outbreaks, involving tainted peppers, salmonella in peanut products and E. coli in spinach.
The bill, whose official introduction is imminent, is co-sponsored by committee chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and chairman emeritus John Dingell, D-Mich., and would give the FDA more enforcement power to investigate food producers, and track and recall unsafe food products.
"There are a lot of things that are good in the bill, but we have concerns about its impact on restaurateurs," said Scott Vinson, vice president of the National Council of Chain Restaurants in Washington, D.C.
Beth Johnson, the National Restaurant Association's executive vice president of Public Affairs, said the NRA "supports congressional efforts to create a stronger and more effective food safety system," and applauds Waxman "for producing a discussion draft that focuses on preventative controls and the application of a risk-based approach to food safety. The chairman's deliberative and comprehensive approach is just the leadership this vital and complicated issue requires.
"However, the association believes that the traceability language contained in the discussion draft fails to take into account the diversity and scope of the foodservice industry and its complex, multi-layered linkage with the supply chain," she continued. "The association is actively engaging the industry, its supply chain and the Congress in support of a traceability system that is achievable and allows for the quick removal of product in the event of a recall."
The NRA and NCCR are concerned about the bill's traceability and record-keeping requirements. Under the measure, all restaurateurs would have to keep records of every shipment they received from suppliers. The records would have to be kept in an FDA-specified standardized electronic format and retained for three years. Failure to comply would make an operator subject to civil penalties of $100,000 per violation per day, Vinson said.
The FDA also would have the right to inspect a restaurant to ensure that it is complying with record-keeping requirements, Vinson said.
Another concern with the new discussion draft is its requirement that restaurateurs must report any potential issue with a food item within 24 hours. Under the current rules, restaurants are exempt.
Vinson also expressed concern about a section in the draft stating that any undisclosed allergen would be considered an "adulterant," and any food that is "adulterated" would be considered to be a threat to public health. An operator who knew or should have known that the food was adulterated would have to, within a certain period of learning of the adulteration, report it to the FDA via the Reportable Food Registry, or be subject to felony punishable up to 10 years in prison.
Among other things, the Food Safety Enhancement Act would give the FDA the authority to force companies to recall potentially contaminated food and arm it with a wider range of criminal and civil penalties to punish food suppliers who knowingly ship tainted foods.
While the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C., is asking Congress to strengthen the Waxman-Dingell bill, the group nevertheless is urging its passage, calling it "the best hope for making America's food safer."
The NRA previously had praised two other congressional measures: the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009, sponsored by Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Judd Gregg, R-N.H., Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., and Richard Burr, R-N.C., in March; and the Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards and Targeting, or FEAST, Act. Sponsored by Reps. Jim Costa, D-Calif., and Adam Putnam, R-Fla., the bill was introduced into the House earlier this year.
The NCCR's Vinson indicated that lawmakers are hoping to fast track a food safety reform measure because they are expecting the debate over health care reform to demand much of their attention during the summer.
Contact Paul Frumkin at [email protected].
