By voice vote yesterday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee (HELP) passed the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 (S.510). Introduced earlier this year, the legislation represents the first major move by the Senate to reform the nation's food safety laws.

Highlights of the bill include:

• Hazard analysis and preventive controls: Requires all facilities that manufacture, process, pack or hold food to have in place risk-based preventive control plans to address identified hazards and prevent adulteration and gives FDA access to these plans and relevant documentation
• Imports: Requires importers to verify the safety of foreign suppliers and imported food. Allows FDA to require certification for high-risk foods and to deny entry to a food that lacks certification or that is from a foreign facility that has refused U.S. inspectors. Creates a voluntary qualified importer program in which importers with a certification of safety for their foreign supplier can pay a user-free for expedited entry into the U.S.
• Inspection: Requires FDA to inspect all food facilities more frequently, including inspections of high-risk facilities at least once a year and inspections of other facilities at least once every four years
• Mandatory Recall: Gives FDA the authority to order a mandatory recall of a food product if the food will cause serious adverse health consequences or death and a company has failed to voluntarily recall the product upon FDA's request
• Administrative Detention: Gives FDA the authority to administratively detain any food that is misbranded or adulterated under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act
• Increases FDA Resources: Increases funding for FDA's food safety activities through increased appropriations and targeted fees for food facility reinspection, food recalls, and the voluntary qualified importer program

This legislation also includes a comprehensive plan to incorporate a commodity-specific, risk- and science-based approach to develop specific standards for the safety of fresh produce. 

United President and CEO Tom Stenzel testified before the Senate HELP Committee three weeks ago and commented on S. 510, saying, "We support this bill as an aggressive and comprehensive approach to reforming food safety law.  While we would like to see further direction to HHS for improving outbreak investigations, we believe many of the tough issues have been addressed in this legislation, leading to the bipartisan nature of its co-sponsors." 

"Specifically, we applaud the bill's commodity-specific approach to produce," Stenzel continued, "which necessarily focuses resources where most needed.  We applaud the bill's requirement that FDA work with USDA and the states in implementation and compliance measures.  We also applaud the bill's mandate for an expedited entry program for imports that can demonstrate compliance with U.S. food safety standards.  We urge the committee to move swiftly in deliberations on S. 510 in order to allow Senate consideration this year."

After the markup, Robert Guenther, United’s senior vice president of public policy, stated, "It is clear that the 111th Congress and the administration have made reforming our nation's food safety laws a top legislative priority. With the passage of H.R. 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 in the House and the pending consideration of S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009 in the Senate, it is critical that the produce industry support legislation that reforms our federal system of food safety oversight and restores public confidence in what too often appears to be a broken system. S. 510 provides a clear roadmap to pursue a set of policy recommendations that brings us closer to a comprehensive food safety program and will achieve our goals of a stronger fresh produce industry."

There is currently no timetable for consideration of this legislation on the Senate floor.