[Homesteadingfamily] Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510)

Thought I would share the following letter from Jay Rockefeller to me:

Thank you for contacting me previously to express your concerns about food safety legislation pending before Congress. I always enjoy hearing from a fellow West Virginian, and I welcome this opportunity to provide you with an update.

Americans should be able to trust that the food they eat and serve their families is safe. Unfortunately, more than 76 million people contract food borne illnesses each year, resulting in the hospitalization of more than 300,000 people and the death of nearly 5,000 people. According to a study conducted by the Produce Safety Project at Georgetown University, the annual health care expenses associated with treating food borne illnesses in West Virginia are more than $44 million a year, with individual treatment costing an average of $1,816 annually. Our food regulatory system was designed over 100 years ago for a food market in which many products were domestically grown and manufactured. Today, an increasing portion of our food is mass produced and imported from overseas, leading to many regulatory challenges.

The Senate passed a modified version of the Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) on November 30, 2010. I supported this legislation, which was ultimately signed into law by the President on January 4, 2011. This new law includes important new protections for consumers. First, it increases the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) enforcement and detection capacity. It requires facilities that manufacture, process, pack, or hold food to have in place risk-based preventative control plans to address identified hazards and adulteration. Second, the new law allows the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to issue a mandatory recall for food products that could cause serious adverse health consequences to consumers. Specifically, the new law gives the FDA, which is a division of HHS, the authority to order a mandatory recall of a good product if the food will cause serious health consequences or death and a company has failed to recall the product upon the FDA's request. Third, the new law requires greater inspection of foreign food facilities. Importers are now required to verify the safety of foreign suppliers in imported food. The FDA can now require certification for high-risk foods and deny entry to a food that lacks certification.

I have heard from many of West Virginia's small farmers and independent food growers who are concerned about how this new law will impact their business operations. I am pleased to inform you that the final bill signed into law also contains measures aimed at protecting small, organic, and local farms. The new law incorporates provisions of an amendment offered by Senator Tester of Montana that exempts roadside stands, farmer's markets, and certain small food facilities from some of the requirements in the Act if the annual average monetary value of food sold by the facility during the previous three-year period was less than $500,000 and sold directly to consumers within 275 miles of the originating facility. The Tester provision thereby exempts small farms, roadside stands, and restaurants from increased regulation.

Specifically, the new law would not interfere with organic farming practices and continues the exception for farms and restaurants under the current definition of farm in the 2002 Bioterrorism Act. The new law does not subject small entities that produce food for their personal consumption or market the majority of their food directly to consumers or restaurants to registration or new record-keeping requirements. This exemption applies to goods sold through farmers' markets, bake sales, public events and organizational fundraisers. Additionally, the law does not alter the requirements of organic food under the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990 and provides training for facilities to come into compliance with new safety requirements. For the purpose of food traceability, the new law also exempts farms and small businesses that are not food facilities from having to create new records and allows the FDA to limit produce safety standards for small and very small entities, such as home gardens, that produce or harvest food which poses little or no serious risk to human health. The FDA would be permitted to revoke exemptions for facilities linked to the outbreak of contaminated foods.

I am very pleased that this fundamentally important legislation was signed into law by the President. Not only will the Food Safety Modernization Act improve food safety protections for consumers, but it will do so in a way that does not harm small farmers or organic growers. As always, I wish you the best.

With Warm Regards,

Jay Rockefeller