Lawmakers want to create a federal food safety agency

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have introduced legislation that would remove food safety responsibilities from the Food and Drug Administration and establish the Federal Food Administration, which would be responsible for ensuring the safety of the country’s food supply and promoting nutrition.

The legislators say they proposed the creation of a singular separate agency for food safety oversight to better protect Americans from foodborne illnesses. According to 2023 Hazel Analytics data, food safety violations have increased, as people become less vigilant since the pandemic. The CDC also said in 2022 that consumer risk of foodborne illnesses increased to pre-pandemic levels, particularly e-coli, listeria, and salmonella. The following year, CDC data showed that sick workers are a major contributor to the spread of foodborne illnesses at restaurants.

“In recent years, the FDA has been plagued by one failure after another—from a failure to protect babies from bacterial infections in their infant formula, to a failure to protect children from lead-tainted applesauce pouches,”  Durbin said in a statement. “The sad reality is that FDA has not used its authority to protect Americans from preventable illness and death.”

Under the proposed legislation, the Federal Food Administration would subsist under the Department of Health and Human Services by incorporating the current food programs under the FDA into this separate agency: the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition the Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Office of Food Policy and Response, and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA).

“I have long said that food safety is a second-class citizen at the Food and Drug Administration,” DeLauro said in a statement. “I believe we need a single food safety agency solely focused on keeping the foods that we eat safe. Creating a single food safety agency could prevent avoidable product contaminations and subsequent recalls that disrupt the supply chain, contribute to rising prices, and in many cases, result in consumer illness and death.”

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