By Sara Wyant

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Washington, Dec. 20 – In a surprise move Sunday evening, the Senate approved a far-reaching new food safety package by unanimous consent---minus a revenue raising measure that had prompted technical objections and stalled the measure three weeks earlier.

 

“Our food safety system has not been updated in almost a century. Families in Nevada and across America should never have to worry about whether the food they put on their table is safe,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) in a statement. “This is a common-sense issue with broad bipartisan support. Tonight we unanimously passed a measure to improve on our current food safety system by giving the FDA the resources it needs to keep up with advances in food production and marketing, without unduly burdening farmers and food producers.”

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The House is expected to approve the revised measure as early as Tuesday, setting the stage for President Obama to sign later this week. The House passed its version of food safety reform legislation, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, on July 30, 2009.

 

The legislation would affect all whole and processed foods except meat, poultry and some egg products, which are regulated by USDA. The Food and Drug Administration would gain the authority to recall food and allow access to internal records at farms and food-production facilities. Another 2,000 FDA inspectors would be hired.

 
The text of the bill is posted at:

http://origin.www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2010-12-19/pdf/CREC-2010-12-19-pt1-PgS10738.pdf#page=8

Scroll down to Page S10745 for the text of the Food Safety Bill, HI 2751

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