Senate OKs bill expanding food safety oversight
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WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate on Tuesday gave its approval to a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to regulate the nation’s food supply.
Under the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which the Senate approved on a 73-25 vote, the FDA would have expanded power to initiate recalls of food without waiting for producers to recall products voluntarily. It requires the agency to conduct inspections of farms and food processing facilities on a regular basis and sets safety standards for imported foods.
The vote came after the recall of 500 million eggs tainted with salmonella last summer. The bill must be reconciled with a more stringent food safety measure—the Food Safety Enhancement Act—passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2009.
Shortly after the Senate action, President Barack Obama called upon the House to move swiftly on the bill.
“I urge the House—which has previously passed legislation demonstrating its strong commitment to making our food supply safer—to act quickly on this critical bill, and I applaud the work that was done to ensure its broad bipartisan passage in the Senate,” President Obama said in a statement Tuesday.
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