Harkin: Latest IOM Report Shows to Close Existing Food Safety Gaps We Must Pass Comprehensive Food Safety Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, released the following statement today after the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a new report entitled “Enhancing Food Safety: The Role of the Food and Drug Administration.”  In 2008, Congress directed FDA to contract with the National Academies for a study of the gaps in FDA’s food safety system and this report is the result.  On November 18, 2009, the HELP Committee approved S.510, the FDA Food Modernization Act of 2009.  It must now be approved by the full Senate.

“Despite countless instances of food borne illness outbreaks, hundreds of sickened Americans and food recalls that put financial strain on companies and consumers, this latest IOM report shows that gaps still exist in our nation’s food safety system. Modernizing our outdated food safety system - a system established over 100 years ago - is a matter of public safety and well being.

“The bipartisan FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which passed out of the HELP Committee without a single ‘no’ vote last year, builds on the central recommendation in IOM’s report:  that we must have a systematic, risk-based approach to food safety in the United States.  The gaps in oversight that IOM has identified reinforce the need for the Senate to move on this legislation as soon as possible.  And because this issue cannot wait, we hope to get the bill to the Senate Floor this month.”

A copy of the IOM report can be found here: http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2010/Enhancing-Food-Safety-The-Role-of-the-Food-and-Drug-Administration.aspx.