The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could see an increase in authority and perform a greater frequency of safety inspections under proposed legislation unveiled in the House of Representatives on 28 January, according to a report by FoodNavigator-USA.com.
The bill – proposed by Democrats on the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee – would require food companies to be inspected at least once every four years, the report said, and drug companies at least every two, but would require manufacturers to pay fees to the FDA.
“We believe that food safety is a right that all Americans have – like defense and infrastructure – and that it should be paid for by Congress appropriating general funds,” a spokesperson for the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) told FoodNavigator-USA.com.
The GMA was one of 10 organizations representing the food industry that signed letters to both the House of Representatives and the Senate last week urging a reform of the FDA in order to better guarantee food safety.
However, the GMA does not believe granting additional powers to the FDA – which currently only has the power to request companies to implement voluntary recalls – would speed up the process of administering product recalls.
“No company has any incentive at all to knowingly provide contaminated products to its clients,” the spokesperson said. “Food safety and consumer confidence is priority number one, so it is in a company’s best interests to withdraw a product immediately.”
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