Menendez, Consumer Groups Call For Food Safety Reform

The nation's outdated food safety regulations and a lack of resources at the Food and Drug Administration are putting consumers at risk, with new food recalls possible if reforms are not passed, consumer advocates, joined by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), said during a press conference at the Cedar Lane Farmers Market Thursday.

Menendez was joined by the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, who released a study showing 85 food recalls nationwide in the 14 months since the House of Representatives passed an overhaul of the FDA's food safety program.  The NJPIRG study, called "Recipe for Disaster," also detailed 61 recalls in New Jersey due to salmonella and other food-borne illness.  The announcement came weeks after the recall of half a million eggs and as the state Division of Consumer Affairs warned of a milk recall.

"When we get to a recall what we are doing is protecting the public in the aftermath of failure," Menendez said at the press conference.

NJPIRG, Food and Water Watch, and other consumer groups are pushing for reforms to America's food safety system, an effort Menendez said he supports.

In July 2009, the House passed its food safety reform bill; however, the Senate has not acted on its version of the bill. Menendez said he would ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to make the bill a top priority.

"We deserve to know that the food we are buying is safe," Menendez said.

Laws governing the FDA today are more than 70 years old and do not account for the size of the global agriculture industry.  The bill, Menendez said, would focus efforts on large companies while safeguarding small businesses.

For large food companies, violations are considered "the cost of doing business," while small farmers would be forced to close if their products were deemed unsafe, Menendez said.

Jim Walsh, state director for Food and Water Watch, said large food companies should have different standards than small local growers.  Any "one size fits all" regulation would put small farmers out of business, he said.

"We need a food safety bill with a strong requirement for frequent inspection of large food processors in order to beef up the flimsy regulatory system that has put consumers in New Jersey, across the country, at risk," Walsh said in a news release.

The Senate bill, called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, would require more frequent inspections, add inspectors, upgrade equipment and give the agency authority to require a food recall.  The FDA can only suggest recalls under current law.

As the press conference went on, shoppers picked through fresh produce offered by a Pennsylvania farm and New Jersey merchants.  One shopper said she was skeptical of the government's ability to safeguard the food supply, but trusted the produce from the Cedar Lane famers market.

"This is as safe as anything else, I guess, probably more than the supermarkets," said Lois Elting of Teaneck. "There's too many hands in it," she said of food at large supermarkets.