The U.S. House of Representatives passed the landmark Food Safety Enhancement Act (H.R. 2749) by a vote of 283 to 142. United Fresh welcomed and applauded the July 30 passage of the bill, of which the association was largely supportive. 

"United Fresh is gratified by the House passage of this landmark food safety legislation, which contains several important provisions designed to improve our nation’s food safety and help bolster consumer confidence in the food supply," said United Fresh President Tom Stenzel. "Over the past two years, United Fresh has supported congressional action on food safety and appreciates the opportunity to provide critical input to lawmakers in development of the bill."

The final version of the bill included several important improvements over the draft version, as advocated by United Fresh. These improvements included:

• Strengthening of the bill's commodity-specific approach to produce;
• Assurance that FDA would work with USDA, state departments of agriculture and other agencies in implementing all produce provisions;
• Maintenance of a mandate for traceability across all foods, but without prescriptive dictates that could have set back work on our current Produce Traceability Initiative;
• Exemption of produce from any duplicative requirements for country of origin labeling;
• Enhancement of the ability of fresh processors to develop individual HACCP programs without rigid one-size fits-all mandates;
• Assurance equal treatment of imported and domestic produce in food safety standards;
• Tighter control of potential FDA geographic quarantine authority, requiring an imminent threat to take such action and coordination with USDA; and,
• A cap on registration fees for both facilities and importers. 

"While United is supportive of these improvements to H.R. 2749," added Stenzel, "there are still important issues that we will address with the Senate as it begins its work on food safety legislation later this year. We look forward to continued bipartisan support and industry cooperation to ensure passage of sound, scientific food safety legislation that can benefit all Americans."