MarketWatch: White House pumps up national food-safety network

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Jul 7, 2009, 5:00 p.m. EST

White House pumps up national food-safety network
New produce rules, better product tracking among proposals

By Ruth Mantell, MarketWatch


WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The White House is pushing to strengthen the national food-safety network by ramping up prevention, surveillance and recovery efforts, administration officials said Tuesday.

Tuesday afternoon the administration announced steps based on recommendations from its Food Safety Working Group that the government will take in coming months, such as:

•Issuing proposals to reduce the risk of microbial contamination in tomatoes, melons and leafy greens. The Food and Drug Administration will issue this draft guidance by the end of the month

•Issuing proposals to establish product-tracing systems to help detect the origins of food-borne illness. The FDA will issue this draft guidance within three months.

•Creating a system to link all relevant agencies, state and local governments so that they can communicate during a food emergency. Federal agencies will implement the system within three months.

Also, the FDA, which is responsible for overseeing about 80% of the food supply ranging from seafood to bread to fruits and vegetables, is creating a new position for a deputy commissioner for foods to oversee and coordinate the agency's food efforts and work with the Department of Agriculture, which oversees meat, poultry and other products.

Further, the FDA is issuing a final rule to control salmonella contamination of eggs, a step that could reduce illness from raw or undercooked eggs by 60%, or 79,000 illnesses ever year. The USDA will develop new salmonella standards for turkeys and poultry by the end of the year. The USDA will also increase sampling to find E. coli, with a focus on ground beef. Salmonella causes more than a million illnesses every year, and is the most common bacterial cause of food-borne illness, while E. coli causes diarrhea, abdominal pain and fever in about 70,000 Americans every year. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/white-house-pumps-up-us-food-safety-network