Report Criticizes Implementation of New Food Safety Rules

Daren Bakst, a research fellow in Agricultural Policy, writes for the Heritage Foundation that rushed deadlines will have disastrous implications for the implementation of new food safety rules.

In 2011, President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) into law,giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unprecedented power to regulate the country’s food supply.[

Bakst notes that this new power includes the first time that the FDA has the authority to establish standards for the production and harvesting of produce and to identify preventive controls for food facilities.  The FDA will also be able to place much greater restrictions on imported goods, establish programs for food testing, and conduct inspections of both domestic and foreign food facilities.  These regulations will have a major impact across the food system, and the potential to drive up food costs and place unnecessary and intrusive restrictions on safe and proven practices.

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Source: Heritage.org