I have a bit too much to do this week on the legal front to get to the "other Washington," but we have the DC Bureau of Food Safety News covering both conferences.  So, hopefully if the internet gods play nice, you should be able to read it at www.foodsafetynews.com soon.

United Fresh Produce Association’s…

Linda Rivera’s excruciating case of food-poisoning (Washington Post, Sept. 1) should shine some light on a crucial reality that is missing from all or most health care reform plans: You can’t fix America’s health care unless you provide Americans with a safe food supply.

The mother of six lies comatose in her Las…

I am off to the Arkansas School of Law later this week to give a series of lectures on Food Safety and how the law can assist in making our food supply safer.  I am using a video from Jack-in-the-Box and a recent Raw Milk case to add to why it is "a bad idea to…

The House has passed its version of the Food Safety Act, now it is the Senate’s turn – We shall see if they can pass anything.  Here is my summary:

Inspections of Records

• Secretary can access business records relating to any food (under FDA jurisdiction) the Secretary believes is adulterated or any other food the Secretary believes is likely to be affected in a similar manner.
• Records access provisions do not apply to farms or restaurants.
• Applies to all records relating to manufacturing, processing, packing, distribution, receipt, holding, or importation.

Registration of Food Facilities (1)

• Facilities (not including farms; restaurants; other retail food establishments; nonprofit food establishments in which food is prepared for or served directly to the consumer; or most fishing vessels) engaged in manufacturing, processing, packing, or holding food for consumption in the United States must renew registrations every two years, alerting the Secretary to, among other things, any changes in food manufactured at the facility.
• The registration must contain an assurance that the Secretary will be permitted to inspect the facility at the times and in the manner permitted by the Act.
• The Secretary may suspend a registration if the Secretary determines that a food product is reasonably probable to cause adverse health consequences to humans or animals.
• If the registration of a facility is suspended, such facility shall not import food or offer to import food into the United States, or otherwise introduce food into interstate commerce in the United States.

Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls

• Requires owners, operators, or agents in charge of facilities to evaluate the hazards that could affect the food manufactured, processed, packed, or held by the facility and create preventive controls to minimize the risk.
• The Secretary may, by regulation, exempt or modify the requirements for compliance under this section with respect to facilities that are solely engaged in the production of food for animals other than man or the storage of packaged foods that are not exposed to the environment.
• Nothing in this subsection can be construed to provide the Secretary with the authority to apply specific technologies, practices, or critical controls to an individual facility.
• Does not limit the Secretary from revising, issuing, or enforcing product and category-specific HACCP regulations under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act or the Public Health Service Act.

(1)  Farm means a facility in one general physical location devoted to the growing and harvesting of crops, the raising of animals (including seafood), or both. Washing, trimming of outer leaves of, and cooling produce are considered part of harvesting. The term farm includes: (i) Facilities that pack or hold food, provided that all food used in such activities is grown, raised, or consumed on that farm or another farm under the same ownership; and (ii) Facilities that manufacture/process food, provided that all food used in such activities is consumed on that farm or another farm under the same ownership.

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Continue Reading S. 510 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (Introduced in Senate)

We decided to create a "one stop shop" for everything food safety.  This will be the place to get "all the news that fit to eat" – and warnings what not to eat too.  There will be news and opinion feeds from Bites, Blogs (www.marlerblog.com) and Twitter.  There will be recall notices from…

From the University of Arkansas School of Law Press Room:

William Marler, a noted food safety lawyer who has secured more than $500 million for victims of food-borne illness, will make a presentation to the law school’s Food Law & Policy class from 8 to 10 a.m. Friday, Sept. 11, in Room 342 of the…

I sat in a mediation today in San Francisco until it became painfully obvious that Dole, Natural Selection Foods, Mission Organics and Pic-n-Save were unwilling to fairly compensate a Wisconsin woman who nearly died after eating E. coli O157:H7-tainted spinach in 2006.  She was hospitalized for months and incurred nearly $500,000 in medical bills.  Good news…