WASHINGTON, D.C. - Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) issued the following statement today after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report, Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration, that “suggests that the FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] lacks a comprehensive vision for food safety” and that the FDA “should change its approach in order to properly protect the nation’s food.”
Dodd is an original cosponsor of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, legislation that will provide a comprehensive approach to food safety in order to prevent future illness and death due to food-borne illness. The legislation provides important new authorities for the FDA, including records access, mandatory recall authority, and administrative detention when the FDA has reason to believe that a food is adulterated or misbranded.
“This report outlines several deeply troubling facts about our nation’s food safety system,” said Dodd. “The bottom line is, the FDA’s approach to keeping our nation’s food supplies safe is in desperate need of a complete overhaul. Food-borne illnesses caused by salmonella and E. coli contamination contribute to 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.
“It’s statistics like these—and stories like those of Haylee Bernstein from Wilton, Connecticut that reflect the true toll that food-borne illnesses have taken on our children—that demand our immediate action, and that’s why the time is now to pass legislation that provides for a complete revamp of our food safety guidelines,” Dodd continued.
Also included in the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is Dodd’s Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, which would require the development of consistent, voluntary federal guidelines for the management of food allergies in schools and provide the resources schools need to carry out the voluntary guidelines. Dodd, the father of a daughter with severe food allergies, has been a longtime advocate for improved food allergy guidelines.
