FDA prepping for food safety
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Deputy Commissioner for Foods Mike Taylor says FDA looks to Congress to move food safety reform legislation over the next "few couple of weeks." At the Food Safety Summit in Washington April 14, Taylor said FDA is preparing for preventive and risk-based food safety enforcement the agency has recommended and pending legislation would require. "We are gearing up to do that in terms of already beginning to develop the rules that Congress is going to mandate that we develop. We're also gearing up in terms of management changes, internal ways in which FDA needs to work" to carry out the system, he said. Taylor has recommended establishing a separate food safety agency, but in an interview said the "right thing to be focusing on now is implementing this legislation we hope Congress will enact" and unifying and elevating the agency's foods program. Food safety legislation could move to the Senate floor as early as the week of April 19, according to staff for sponsor Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. The bill the House passed in 2009 differs from Durbin's bill in several key areas (1"The Tan Sheet" Nov. 23, 2009)