ENZI AMENDMENT PASSES UNANIMOUSLY TO IMPROVE AND ENHANCE FOOD SAFETY

Washington D.C. – The Senate today approved a bipartisan amendment cosponsored by U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-WY, Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP Committee), to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Revitalization Act that will improve food safety for Americans and their pets. “Food safety has been making news lately. From E. coli in fresh spinach, to Salmonella in peanut butter, to melamine-contaminated pet food, we hear a constant drumbeat of food safety problems,” Enzi said. “These recent events have demonstrated that FDA and other agencies responsible for ensuring food safety need more tools to protect the public health. This amendment is a good first step toward giving them to tools to monitor and combat future food safety concerns.” “When Americans purchase a snack, eat at a restaurant, or sit down to dinner with their families, they should be able to expect that the food they eat will nourish them, not make them ill. There is still more to be done to restore that faith, and I look forward in the coming weeks and months to working with my colleagues to develop a comprehensive, effective strategy to enhance food safety.” The amendment offered by Enzi and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) establishes standards for pet food, and sets up early warning systems for any problems with pet foods. It improves communication systems about all food recalls, and coordinates state and federal activities on fresh and processed produce. Finally, the amendment creates a database of instances of adulterated food so that FDA can better track patterns of problems and target its limited resources to where they are most needed. The Senate approved the amendment by a 94-0 vote. “In March of 2005, Senator Kennedy and I announced that we were working to develop a comprehensive response on another FDA issue – drug safety,” Enzi said. “The bill that is on the floor this week is a direct result of that announcement, and that pledge to work together. I pledge today to work in the same dedicated, bipartisan way to develop a comprehensive response to food safety.” ####