Lawmakers Worry Smithfield Sale May Affect US Food Safety

Bloomberg News (6/6, Singh) reports US Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) is concerned about how “Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd.’s deal to buy Smithfield Foods” will affect food safety in the US.

“‘American consumers have long been able to trust the food they buy in the supermarket,’ Stabenow,” who chairs the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, “said in a statement. ... ‘I am concerned about Shuanghui International’s possible purchase of Smithfield Foods and the implications it could have on food safety for American consumers,’” she added.

Judge Finds FDA’s Rule Delays Violate Food Safety Law

Bloomberg News (4/23, Gullo) reports that a Federal judge on Monday ruled that the US Food and Drug Administration “is violating food-safety law by delaying regulations intended to help prevent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses.”

US District Judge Phyllis Hamilton “in Oakland, California, said the agency has ‘admittedly failed to comply with the mandatory rule-making schedule’ of the Food Safety and Modernization Act,” which President Obama signed into law by “in January 2011. 

The FDA had 18 months to issue new regulations. The agency said the “aggressive timelines” have “proven to be unachievable,” Hamilton said in a ruling.” She “ordered the FDA to come up with proposed deadlines for regulations by May 20.”

Agra-Net.com (4/23) reports the “final menu labeling rules are in the ‘home stretch’ and will be published this year. New legislation would be needed to charge the food industry additional fees to help pay for the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. And FDA is doubling its comment period for the preventive controls and produce safety proposals it published in January,” according to testimony FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg gave recently “before the FDA-USDA appropriations subcommittee.”

Industry Groups Oppose Food Safety Tax

Food Safety News (4/22, Bottemiller) reports the President’s “FY 2014 budget released earlier this month seeks a $295 million increase” for the Food and Drug Administration’s “food program, but the vast majority of the boost would come from new fees that Congress has not mandated, including $59 million in registration and inspection fees and $166 million in import fees, to help the agency roll out the Food Safety Modernization Act.”

Prior to a “hearing late last week, a coalition of industry groups sent a letter to Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR) and Roy Blunt (R-MO), the chair and ranking member of the Senate appropriations subcommittee on agriculture and other agencies, urging the committee to ‘appropriately fund’ food safety at FDA ‘rather than support the imposition of any new food regulatory taxes.’”

At the hearing, when Pryor asked FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg about the issue, she said, “I do think it’s appropriate that our budget reflect that with a combination of budget authority commitment and user fees.”

Ricardo Gomez