Senator Wants Food Tracking to Warn Buyers about Tainted Products

WEST END, Ohio — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown on Thursday unveiled legislation that would create a mandatory tracking system for the food manufacturing and retail industry. He used the recent near-fatal food-borne illness of the daughter of a Cincinnati city councilman and several national food recalls to show the need for his proposal.

"If UPS can track a package from my office in Washington, D.C., to my office here in Ohio, why can't food producers and retailers do the same?" Brown said during a news conference held at the West End Health Center.

Any entity that touches potential food products, from growers to processors to retailers, would need to keep detailed records on all interactions with any ingredient; and the Food and Drug Administration would have oversight of the proposed database.

Brown said the system could help speed notification of consumers of possibly tainted food, giving the example of Celeste Thomas, the 25-year-old daughter of Councilman Cecil Thomas.

Thomas nearly died in May from an E. coli infection after eating macaroni salad made by Yoder's and purchased at a Kroger. The locally based grocery chain notified Celeste's mother of a recall through its PlusCard system when she visited the store while her daughter was in the hospital.

It was only after Kroger told her of the recall that doctors were able to correctly treat the strain of E. coli, which is notoriously hard to diagnose. The Thomases both thanked Kroger for having the system in place, and Celeste profusely thanked her doctors and nurses at Christ Hospital for "helping save her life."

But Brown said the notification should not have happened only because Celeste's mother went to shop for cat food.

Kroger has since instituted a policy of calling customers who have submitted phone numbers and who may have purchased tainted food after a recall is announced. Company spokeswoman Meghan Glynn said Kroger "certainly supports industry efforts to improve traceability" but declined comment on the bill.

The bill calls for $40 million over three years to help set up the system. But it does not say where the funds would come from or who would pay for the system in the long run, although it does call for the creation of a committee of industry and food experts to help craft the system.

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer