Rep. Rosa DeLauro Proposes Food Safety Bill

WASHINGTON — Months after her 7-year-old son was hospitalized with severe salmonella poisoning, Gabrielle Meunier can only suspect that a box of crackers containing peanut butter was responsible.

The Food and Drug Administration has yet to tell her whether the crackers that her son ate back in December are tainted with salmonella. The Vermont mother is convinced they are because the Canadian government found the potentially deadly bacteria in a similar box from Maine.

"We still don't have results from the FDA on the crackers," Meunier said Wednesday at a news conference in the U.S. Capitol.

Meunier stood Wednesday with Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-3, to denounce what they are convinced are systemic flaws in the way America regulates food safety.

"This salmonella outbreak is just the latest and represents a full-scale breakdown of a patchwork food safety system," DeLauro said. "This is a dysfunctional federal agency that is unable to perform its mission."

The latest outbreak of salmonella from tainted peanut butter has killed eight and sickened more than 500 people across America. In mid-January, food inspectors confirmed the presence of salmonella bacteria in an unopened, five-pound tub of peanut butter found at a Connecticut food distributor.

The outbreak has prompted a criminal investigation of the peanut processor and renewed DeLauro's efforts to revamp the FDA.

DeLauro introduced legislation Wednesday, along with more than two dozen co-sponsors, that would bring food safety under a single commission within the FDA. She introduced a similar bill last year.

Under her proposal, the FDA would be split into an agency responsible for food safety and another responsible for regulation of drugs and devices. The bill would also put the focus on preventing contamination rather than simply identifying outbreaks.

DeLauro proposed a similar bill last September that was not considered. She expects a warmer reception this time, although Democratic leaders have made no commitments to bringing it forward for a vote this year.

DeLauro does seem to have momentum on her side given the sheer size of the latest peanut butter recall and the national media attention associated with it. There were seven television camera and more than a dozen reporters at her Wednesday news conference.

DeLauro's bill is also backed by an alphabet soup of advocacy groups including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Safe Tables Our Priority, Center for Foodborne Illness Research; Prevention, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and the Trust for America's Health.

Source: Connecticut Post