Durbin Calls for Overhaul of Food Safety

Sunday, April 11, 2010 Chicago - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Sunday brought his efforts to call for an overhaul of the nation's food safety laws to a West Loop grocery store.

Durbin, with several victims of food-borne illnesses, stated at a news conference at the Jewel-Osco store at 370 N. Des Plaines St. Sunday morning that his food safety bill will be up for a vote on the Senate Floor in a matter of days.

Durbin contends that the ability of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to protect the safety of the nation’s food supply will dramatically improve if Congress passes the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, according to a release from Durbin's office.

Durbin’s legislation would give the FDA new authorities, tools and resources to comprehensively reform the nation’s food safety systems, the release said.

“We’ve seen major recalls of peanut butter spiked with salmonella, spinach laced with e-coli and chili loaded with botulism,” Durbin said. “These are not isolated incidents. They are the result of an outdated, under-funded and overwhelmed food safety system. My bill will improve the FDA’s ability to prevent food-borne illness outbreaks and ensure that FDA responds quickly and effectively when outbreaks do occur.” ?

“Today, FDA is working within the constraints of outdated laws, inadequate staff, and not enough funding,” said Durbin. “The agency has been set up to react to outbreaks of contamination. My legislation would take the FDA to a new level by empowering the agency to prevent outbreaks. The bill gives FDA the resources and authority to quickly trace food borne illnesses back to their source. With those changes, we’ll be able to prevent millions of food-borne illnesses and thousands of deaths each year.” ??

The legislation addresses some of the issues surrounding the recent product recalls by increasing the frequency of inspections at all food facilities; giving the FDA expanded access to records and testing results, and allowing the FDA to recall dangerous food products in the event a company fails to recall a product at the FDA’s request, the release said.

Each year, the release said, 76 million Americans get sick due to preventable food-borne illnesses—325,000 of those individuals are hospitalized and 5,000 die.