Source:  Dani Friedland, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 1/5/11

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law a bill intended to modernize the FDA, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs announced in a list of 35 new laws.

Republicans may attempt to cut funding for the new measure. 

Calling the new law “a significant step forward in modernizing our country’s antiquated food safety systems,” Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who chairs the FDA and Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, released a statement defending the measure.

“It is disturbing that there will be an effort by Republicans to cut FDA funding and thus prevent this landmark new law from being implemented adequately,” DeLauro said. “In the same week that Republicans announced their intention to cut FDA funding for the new food safety law, it was announced that a salmonella outbreak involving alfalfa sprouts had sickened nearly 100 people in at least 15 states. Without appropriate funding levels, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act would not be as effective in protecting our food supply and saving lives.”

In addition to requiring processors to evaluate and correct potential hazards, the measure gives FDA a congressional mandate to inspect food processing establishments on the basis of risk, with high-risk facilities inspected within the next five years and no less than every three years after that.

The new legislation also gives FDA the power to compel a recall, and adds additional oversight to food imports.

“We need to look at the food system as a whole, be clear about the food safety responsibility of all of its participants, and strengthen accountability for prevention throughout the entire food system – domestically and internationally,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a blog posted to both foodsafety.gov and the White House website. “This law represents a sea change for food safety in America, bringing a new focus on prevention, and I expect that in the coming years it will have a dramatic and positive effect on the safety of the food supply.”

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