CRS Reports on the Federal Food Safety System: A Primer
The Congressional Research Service has issued a report (RS22600) entitled, "The Federal Food Safety System: A Primer," which states that a number of comprehensive food safety proposals aimed at addressing perceived shortcomings in the U.S. food safety system were introduced but not enacted by the prior 110th Congress.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
These included measures to reform the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) oversight of food and other imports, to create a new independent food safety agency, and to impose a variety of new requirements on food manufacturers, handlers, and producers (including farms), such as mandated risk-based safety plans, recordkeeping for product tracing purposes, more rigorous registration requirements, and performance standards.
A bill with similarly broad goals, H.R. 2749, was passed by the House on July 30, 2009 in the 111th Congress. Senate floor action on a similar measure has been held up by objections about the projected cost of the bill, as well as continued attempts to further amend it.