Excellent news ~ I'm curious [altho I could guess] who voted 'nay' on this ~ Sooz

Senate passes food-safety legislation
The bill still needs to be reconciled with legislation passed by the House in July 2009, but the Senate action was hailed by advocates as a sign that the nation's food-safety laws will receive their first major overhaul in decades.

By Andrew Zajac, Tribune Washington Bureau
9:58 a.m. CST, November 30, 2010

Reporting from Washington — After languishing for more than a year, a food-safety bill that has enjoyed strong bipartisan support passed the Senate on Tuesday, raising prospects for tougher and more extensive federal inspections and other safeguards.

The bill, which President Obama supports, still needs to be reconciled with differing provisions in legislation passed by the House in July 2009.

But the Senate's approval, by a 73-25 margin, was cheered by food safety experts and advocacy groups as a sign that the long delay could be nearing an end and the nation's food-safety laws will receive their first major overhaul in decades.

The Food Safety and Modernization Act would require improved planning and record-keeping by food producers and would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to recall contaminated food under its own authority, instead of relying on industry cooperation.

Today's vote will finally give the FDA the tools it needs to help ensure that the food on dinner tables and store shelves is safe," Richard Durbin, D-Ill, the bill's primary sponsor, said in a statement.

Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, called it a "paradigm shift for the FDA."

"It moves the agency from reacting to outbreaks and recalls to preventing them," he said.

Impetus for the reforms came from a series of foodborne-illness outbreaks in recent years involving spinach, jalapeno peppers, cookie dough, peanuts and other food.

The Senate bill languished for months during lengthy debates on healthcare and financial regulation overhauls and disputes about changes to the legislation, which was supported by a broad but delicate coalition of food-safety, consumer-advocacy and food-industry groups.

A salmonella outbreak over the summer that sickened more than 1,800 and led to the largest [url=/topic/economy-business-finance/consumer-goods-industries/product-recalls/egg-recall-%282010%29-EVHST0000252.topic]egg recall[/url] in U.S. history refocused attention on defects in the food-safety system and highlighted the need for reform.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nati ... 0489.story

http://politics.nytimes.com/congress/votes/111/senate/2/257

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the previous problems due to lack of adequate staffing and lax enforcement of the current laws? I know there were  a lot of payoffs going on too, so that the inadequate staff could skip some inspections for the right price. All the while submitting paperwork that looked good.

I really don't see how new laws will rectify the above problems. We all know how record keeping can be fudged. Frankly, I don't see food manufacturers ruining their bottom line by reporting problems. I also didn't see how they plan on addressing the staffing problem for inspectors but instead only focused on improved planning and record keeping on the part of the food producers.

Sorry to be so jaded, but I don't see this as helping.

Sorry to be so jaded, but I don't see this as helping.

I'm with you. It's just more busy-work to make the Congress Critters appear as if they are doing something useful.