New Food Safety Bill Aims to Lessen Recalls

Food safety is a question that is on everyone's mind nowadays, especially if you have children. This is an issue in which it is debatable as to whether Congress should get involved. There was a recent hearing broadcast on C-Span on the matter where the CEOs of several major American food companies were asked to testify. A couple of the economic leaders were Gary Rodkin of ConAgra Foods and Butterball Turkey CEO Keith Shoemaker. Shoemaker was very firm and professional as he clarified several false media reports that had proclaimed that some Butterball turkeys had to be recalled due to a recent salmonella outbreak. Shoemaker was very forthright when answering questions and went into quite a bit of detail as to how a Butterball turkey is made and ready to be eaten. Shoemaker wanted it to make it clear that Butterball went above and beyond the call of duty when it came to preparing the turkey, saying that by cooking their turkey at one hundred and sixty two degrees as opposed to just one hundred and sixty degrees like the United States Department of Agriculture mandates the extra two degrees make the turkeys safer to consume.

Bart Stupak of Michigan, a Democrat was the one who called the hearing wanted to hear more on why incidents like the contamination of Peter Pan peanut butter occurred. Stupak is the chairman of a oversight and investigationssubcommittee of the larger Energy and Commerce panel. One CEO, who according to CNN refused to testify, was Steve Mendell of Hallmark/Westland who recently had to deal with a pretty severe recall of their beef. Stupak also wanted to discuss a bill that he had crafted and introduced in several successive Congresses dealing with food safety, but couldn't even get anyone in the Food and Drug Administration or the USDA to take an official position on the legislation. The Stupak-Pallone Food Safety Act of 2008 would in a nutshell extend the FDA's authority to overseas markets to ensure greater safety of food that is being imported to this country. The biggest topic at the hearing was e coli in lettuce and this where the CEO of Dole Foods David DeLorenzo came in and said more research needed to be done as noted by CNN. The Stupak bill also prohibits the selling of food that has been treated with carbon monoxide. This sort of practice came to light last year when companies like Giant and Tyson finally announced that they would stop selling meat such as this.

It is doubtful that Mr. Stupak will get any serious action done on this until at least 2009 when a new FDA Commissioner will be selected by a new Administration. If you want to see some action on the Stupak bill don't be afraid to call your congressional representative and request that they take a stand on the legislation Stupak-Pallone bill. To read the bill go to: http://energycommerce.house.gov/Subcommittees/ovin.shtml for the official Subcommittee website and the transcript of the hearing can also be downloaded at this site.

Sources:

Parijaz B. Kavilanz. "Foodmaker CEOs set to face House grilling". Cable News Network.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/25/news/companies/foodsafety_hearing/?postversion=2008022608

Parjiaz B. Kavilanz. "Lawmakers blast food safety mess." Cable News Network.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/02/26/news/companies/foodsafety_hearing/index.htm?postversion=2008022615

Congressman John Dingell. Praise for Company's Decision. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee.

http://energycommerce.house.gov/Press_110/110nr107.shtml