Lawmakers Seek More Food-Safety Oversight

Food-safety laboratories that test some imported foods would be required to submit all test results to federal regulators, whether good or bad, lawmakers proposed Wednesday.

Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the Eat Safe Act of 2007, which includes additional funding for food-safety agencies and requires tighter oversight of private labs that test some imported foods.

The labs test imported foods that have had safety problems before and which the Food and Drug Administration won't allow into the USA unless the importer proves them safe. Typically, importers hire private labs to test the products and those results then go to the FDA.

USA TODAY reported last month that five private labs confirmed they don't submit failing test results to the FDA if the importers tell them not to. The FDA in 2004 proposed that labs be required to submit all test results to the agency, but it never implemented the change. The concern is that unscrupulous importers might try to sneak bad products into the USA by hiding failing test results, getting another lab to test the shipment and then giving the FDA only that test if it came up clean.

Read the full USA Today story here.