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| FILE - This Sept. 28, 2011 file photo shows the sign leading to the Jensen Farms near Holly, Colo. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed the most sweeping food safety rules in decades, requiring farmers and food companies to be more vigilant in the wake of deadly outbreaks in peanuts, cantaloupe and leafy greens. |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed the most sweeping food safety rules in decades, requiring farmers and food companies to be more vigilant in the wake of deadly outbreaks in peanuts, cantaloupe and leafy greens.
The
long-overdue regulations could cost businesses close to half a billion
dollars a year to implement, but are expected to reduce the estimated
3,000 deaths a year from foodborne illness. Just since last summer,
outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella in peanut butter, mangoes
and cantaloupe have been linked to more than 400 illnesses and as many
as seven deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The actual number of those sickened is likely much
higher.
The FDA's proposed rules would require
farmers to take new precautions against contamination, to include
making sure workers' hands are washed, irrigation water is clean, and
that animals stay out of fields. Food manufacturers will have to submit
food safety plans to the government to show they are keeping their
operations clean.
Many responsible food
companies and farmers are already following the steps that the FDA would
now require them to take. But officials say the requirements could have
saved lives and prevented illnesses in several of the large-scale
outbreaks that have hit the country in recent years.
In
a 2011 outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe that claimed 33 lives, for
example, FDA inspectors found pools of dirty water on the floor and old,
dirty processing equipment at Jensen Farms in Colorado where the
cantaloupes were grown. In a peanut butter outbreak this year linked to
42 salmonella illnesses, inspectors found samples of salmonella
throughout Sunland Inc.'s peanut processing plant in New Mexico and
multiple obvious safety problems, such as birds flying over uncovered
trailers of peanuts and employees not washing their hands.
Under
the new rules, companies would have to lay out plans for preventing
those sorts of problems, monitor their own progress and explain to the
FDA how they would correct them.
"The rules go
very directly to preventing the types of outbreaks we have seen," said
Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods.
The
FDA estimates the new rules could prevent almost 2 million illnesses
annually, but it could be several years before the rules are actually
preventing outbreaks. Taylor said it could take the agency another year
to craft the rules after a four-month comment period, and farms would
have at least two years to comply - meaning the farm rules are at least
three years away from taking effect. Smaller farms would have even
longer to comply.
The new rules, which come
exactly two years to the day President Barack Obama's signed food safety
legislation passed by Congress, were already delayed. The 2011 law
required the agency to propose a first installment of the rules a year
ago, but the Obama administration held them until after the election.
Food safety advocates sued the administration to win their release.
The
produce rule would mark the first time the FDA has had real authority
to regulate food on farms. In an effort to stave off protests from
farmers, the farm rules are tailored to apply only to certain fruits and
vegetables that pose the greatest risk, like berries, melons, leafy
greens and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that produces
green beans that will be canned and cooked, for example, would not be
regulated.
Such flexibility, along with the
growing realization that outbreaks are bad for business, has brought the
produce industry and much of the rest of the food industry on board as
Congress and FDA has worked to make food safer.
In
a statement Friday, Pamela Bailey, president of the Grocery
Manufacturers Association, which represents the country's biggest food
companies, said the food safety law "can serve as a role model for what
can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to
achieve a common goal."
The new rules could
cost large farms $30,000 a year, according to the FDA. The agency did
not break down the costs for individual processing plants, but said the
rules could cost manufacturers up to $475 million annually.
FDA
Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the success of the rules will also
depend on how much money Congress gives the chronically underfunded
agency to put them in place. "Resources remain an ongoing concern," she
said.
The farm and manufacturing rules are
only one part of the food safety law. The bill also authorized more
surprise inspections by the FDA and gave the agency additional powers to
shut down food facilities. In addition, the law required stricter
standards on imported foods. The agency said it will soon propose other
overdue rules to ensure that importers verify overseas food is safe and
to improve food safety audits overseas.
Food safety advocates frustrated over the last year as the rules stalled praised the proposed action.
"The
new law should transform the FDA from an agency that tracks down
outbreaks after the fact, to an agency focused on preventing food
contamination in the first place," said Caroline Smith DeWaal of the
Center for Science in the Public Interest.
