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Obama administration takes action on food safety
Source
of Article: http://members.ift.org/IFT/Pubs/Newsletters/weekly/nl_070809.htm
According to Reuters, on July 7 the
Obama administration ordered tougher steps to curb Salmonella and E. coli contamination
in U.S. food processing plants. The actions were based on recommendations
from a Food Safety Working Group (FSWG) created by President Barack Obama
in March after the Salmonella
outbreak in peanut products.
Under the new rules:
- The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) will help the food industry establish better
tracing systems to track the origins of a bacterial outbreak.
- A new network will be
established to help the many agencies that regulate food safety to
communicate better.
- Egg and poultry producers
will have to follow new standards designed to reduce Salmonella
contamination.
- The Food Safety Inspection
Service, the Agriculture Department agency that inspects meat, will
increase sampling of ground beef ingredients in an effort to better
find E. coli
contamination.
- The FDA will recommend ways
that producers of leafy greens, melons, and tomatoes can reduce
disease strains, and require stricter standards in those industries
within two years.
In response to the
working group recommendations, the administration created a new position—
Deputy Commissioner for Foods—at the FDA to increase coordination of food
safety activities in different parts of the federal government.
Reuters article
White House release
FSWG Fact Sheet (pdf)
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