F.D.A. proposes Sweeping Rules to Fight Food pollution
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed two sweeping rules to prevent the contamination of produce and processed foods that are sick tens of thousands of Americans each year in recent years.
The long-awaited rules could cost companies around half a billion dollars a year to implement, but expected the estimated 3,000 deaths per year to bring back food-borne diseases. Just since last summer, outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella in peanut butter, mango and melon have been linked to over 400 illnesses and seven deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The actual number of these diseases is likely to be much higher.
Proposed rules, the FDA would farmers to take new measures against pollution, to include the concerns of employees to wash hands, irrigation water is clean, and that the animals stay out of the fields. Food manufacturers will have to ensure food plans by the government to show that they love their operations clean.
Whether consumers will ultimately bear part of the cost of the new rules was unclear, but the agency estimates that the proposals would be food producers thousands of dollars per year.
A major question to be resolved is whether Congress approves the money needed to support the supervision. President Obama requested $ 220 million in its 2013 budget, but Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA, said: "resources remain an ongoing concern."
Yet agency officials were optimistic that the new rules would improve consumer protection.
The new rules, which come exactly two years signed food the day of President Barack Obama legislation passed by Congress, had been delayed. The 2011 law required the agency to the first installment of the scheme a year ago to imagine, but the Obama administration held them until after the election. Food safety advocates complained the administration to win their release.
The product line would mark the first time the FDA has real authority to regulate food on farms. In an attempt to stave off protests from farmers, the farm rules tailored apply only to certain fruits and vegetables that the greatest risk, such as berries, melons, leafy vegetables and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that produces green beans that are cooked and canned, for example, would not be regulated.
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday proposed two sweeping rules to prevent the contamination of produce and processed foods that are sick tens of thousands of Americans each year in recent years.
The long-awaited rules could cost companies around half a billion dollars a year to implement, but expected the estimated 3,000 deaths per year to bring back food-borne diseases. Just since last summer, outbreaks of listeria in cheese and salmonella in peanut butter, mango and melon have been linked to over 400 illnesses and seven deaths, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The actual number of these diseases is likely to be much higher.
Proposed rules, the FDA would farmers to take new measures against pollution, to include the concerns of employees to wash hands, irrigation water is clean, and that the animals stay out of the fields. Food manufacturers will have to ensure food plans by the government to show that they love their operations clean.
Whether consumers will ultimately bear part of the cost of the new rules was unclear, but the agency estimates that the proposals would be food producers thousands of dollars per year.
A major question to be resolved is whether Congress approves the money needed to support the supervision. President Obama requested $ 220 million in its 2013 budget, but Dr. Margaret Hamburg, commissioner of the FDA, said: "resources remain an ongoing concern."
Yet agency officials were optimistic that the new rules would improve consumer protection.
The new rules, which come exactly two years signed food the day of President Barack Obama legislation passed by Congress, had been delayed. The 2011 law required the agency to the first installment of the scheme a year ago to imagine, but the Obama administration held them until after the election. Food safety advocates complained the administration to win their release.
The product line would mark the first time the FDA has real authority to regulate food on farms. In an attempt to stave off protests from farmers, the farm rules tailored apply only to certain fruits and vegetables that the greatest risk, such as berries, melons, leafy vegetables and other foods that are usually eaten raw. A farm that produces green beans that are cooked and canned, for example, would not be regulated.
0 comments:
Post a Comment