Food Safety -- Where are we headed? A brief summary…
Russell Libby, Executive Director, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association
January 24, 2010
Congress is likely to revisit food safety legislation sometime in the weeks ahead. Last year the House approved HR 2749, The Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions unanimously approved a version of S. 510, The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, but didn’t send it on to the full Senate for consideration before the end of 2009. Although there are some minor (and a few major) differences, the bills are similar.
Here are the critical issues, based on MOFGA’s involvement and the shared perspectives of the National Organic Coalition and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
Facilities. Any business that is defined as a facility by FDA has to meet certain criteria.
- Register with FDA (already required under the Food Bioterrorism Act of 2002)
- Pay a $500 per year annual fee (House bill; Senate bill has no fee structure)
- Have a food safety plan that describes the processes used by the business, and how
- food safety is monitored and assured (equivalent to a HACCP plan)
- Have a food defense plan (how the facility is going to be protected from terrorists,
- including cyberterrorists). (This, too, is part of the Food Bioterrorism Act of 2002.)
- Have a system for traceability
Farms are exempt from these requirements in the Food Bioterrorism Act, and in HR 2749 and S 510, except for the substantial problem that the definition of a farm ends very close to the harvesting of the product. Many things farmers do (like put produce into packages and put labels on them, or cook maple sap into maple syrup, or make value-added products on the farm) potentially turn the farm into an FDA-regulated facility. Whether the facility is then exempt, or covered, depends on how much of the product is sold directly to consumers at retail (a majority, and the farm/mixed use facility is potentially exempt). However, if some or all of their products are already considered risky by FDA, the farm may again become a mixed-use facility, and then be regulated.
This has been MOFGA’s focus for the past year -- more clarity about when a farm becomes a facility, and why.
Produce. Both the House and Senate bills make even more explicit FDA’s ability to regulate the produce industry. The House bill, and tentative Senate language, would link this to existing standards, including the National Organic Program. However, FDA has been moving ahead with ‘guidance documents’ that would have the force of regulations. In July, FDA released documents for melons, tomatoes, and leafy greens. Comments were due by early January. The 150 pages contain a wealth of detail -- and really are not scale-appropriate. But they will have the effect of becoming de facto rules once released in final form.
Exemptions. Even though the bulk of the food safety outbreaks in the U.S. are traced to meat, the only mentions of meat in the proposed legislation reinforce the existing laws so that USDA has total jurisdiction over meat, livestock, grains, and, for some quirky reason, sugar cane, sugar beets, and honey (but not maple syrup!).
Resources:
MOFGA’s comments on various issues regarding food safety, including the proposed legislation, are posted here:
http://www.mofga.org/Programs/PublicPolicyInitiatives/MOFGAPositionStatements/FoodSafety/tabid/1102/Default.aspx
The National Organic Coalition comments on the FDA food policy guidance’s, and the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition comments on S 510 and food safety legislation are posted here: http://www.nationalorganiccoalition.org/foodsafety.html.
These two coalitions proposed changes to the definition of a facility that would help to resolve the definitional issues. However, both pieces of legislation would potentially stifle the growing specialty food producers sector that has been so closely linked to farming here in New England over the past twenty years.
For more information, please feel free to contact me directly:
Russell Libby, rlibby@mofga.org, 207-568-4142
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