Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749) by a vote of 283-142. The bill was crafted in response to a raft of foodborne illness outbreaks, tied mostly to produce and nuts, that exposed regulatory vulnerabilities at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The bill would shift the focus of federal food safety efforts by placing a greater emphasis on the prevention of foodborne illness outbreaks, which sicken millions of Americans – and kill thousands – each year. Washington Post reporter Lyndsey Layton writes, “It places significant responsibilities on farmers and food processors to prevent contamination – a departure from the country's reactive tradition, which has relied on government inspectors to catch tainted food after the fact.”

Here is a rundown of some of the major provisions in the bill.

Preventing contamination

Facilities would have to identify hazards that could potentially adulterate food that is grown, housed or processed in said facility. Once the hazards are identified, facilities would have to implement “preventive controls” (e.g. sanitation, hygiene training, and/or various best practices).

The bill would also require FDA to set food safety standards that would prevent illness outbreaks connected to specific pathogens or stemming from specific foods.

Recall authority and enforcement

The lowest hanging fruit Congress is reaching for is a provision that gives FDA mandatory recall authority. Currently, FDA works with producers or retailers to recover dangerous food, but the recalls are voluntary. If a particular firm does not want to announce a recall, that’s tough toenails for consumers.

The bill would boost FDA’s enforcement authority in other ways by compelling farms and facilities to turn over their records and by allowing the agency to dole out larger fines.

User-fee-funded inspections

The bill would require food-handling facilities (manufacturers, processors, importers, and warehouses, but not farms) to register with the FDA and pay $500 a year to fund more frequent inspections. FDA would then inspect high risk facilities every six months to one year and low risk facilities every 18 months to three years. The bill would also establish a “dedicated foreign inspectorate” to keep tabs on overseas facilities.

Traceability

The bill would create a system to help investigators and regulators more quickly identify the source of a foodborne illness outbreak. Last summer’s salmonella outbreak underscored the need for better traceability: the source of the outbreak was not identified for months after initially being misidentified. A traceability system should allow FDA “to identify each person who grows, produces, manufactures, processes, packs, transports, holds, or sells such food in as short a timeframe as practicable but no longer than 2 business days.”

The traceability system would have to be established by FDA regulation. Before writing those regulations, the bill would require FDA to identify tracing technologies, conduct a feasibility study and a cost-benefit analysis, hold two public meetings, and pilot the system.

For a more in depth analysis of the bill, check out this update from Food and Water Watch. Although it has not been updated since the bill was reported out of the House committee, it is still accurate and quite useful.

Consumer groups, and some industry groups like the Grocery Manufacturers of America, support the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. Their support will be critical to Senate passage. The Senate is expected to consider food safety legislation after the summer recess, which begins this weekend.

Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, lauded the House passage of the bill: "FDA has been operating under the same law for 70 years and can do little more than respond to outbreaks after the fact. This bill gives the FDA more authority and real enforcement teeth to help prevent more outbreaks, illnesses, and deaths."