mcjoan's post from last week about melamine contamination made me start fretting. I'm my family's chef. What should I feed them?
I'm worrying about melamine in our chicken and pork, mercury in our seafood, E. coli 0157:H7 in our beef and produce.
I don't have an answer to this question, but I do know something which could be a part of the solution: Senators Richard Durbin and Charles Schumer's Safe Food Act of 2007.
The bill would
establish the Food Safety Administration to protect the public health by preventing food-borne illness, ensuring the safety of food, improving research on contaminants leading to food-borne illness, and improving security of food from intentional contamination, and for other purposes.
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro provides a summary of an earlier House version of the bill here. And here is Consumer Affairs.com, reporting on an April 19, 2007 House Agriculture Subcommittee hearing:
Today's hearing highlighted the frequently-heard complaint that the U.S. food safety network is a patchwork of agencies not efficiently protecting consumers. The GAO report noted that 15 agencies comprise the U.S. food safety network. Even within the USDA, there are various departments in charge of one type of food or another . . .
DeLauro and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) have responded with the Safe Food Act, legislation which would put all the powers of those 15 agencies under one roof, potentially eliminating the overlaps and holes that the GAO uncovered.
At today's hearing, representatives pressed Raymond [Richard Raymond, M.D., the USDA's Under Secretary for Food Safety] on the deadly delays in recalls of peanut butter and pet foods.
"That's not our jurisdiction," was his frequent response.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest,
The Safe Food Act would create a Food Safety Administration, similar to the Environmental Protection Agency, that would take responsibility for food safety and labeling from USDA and FDA. The bill would also establish a comprehensive program to protect public health and bolster consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply. Currently, food safety monitoring, inspection, and labeling functions are spread across 12 federal agencies.
Twelve, fifteen . . . let's just say TOO MANY.
Fanatic Cook (who has been reporting on the melamine affair and the Food Safety Act on her blog) says the Food Safety Act "has been languishing in a committee since at least 1999." Fanatic urges us to write our representatives in Congress, and she has provided a model letter, too. (MAJOR hat tip to Fanatic Cook for informing me about this important piece of legislation.)
I'm just beginning to learn about all of this, but I felt it was important to share it with all of you. I'm looking forward to your comments.