In 2010, after thousands of Americans were sickened by tainted spinach, peanut butter and eggs, Congress passed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a sweeping reform bill that gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new powers to help ensure the safety of the nation’s food system. It was the nation’s first major food policy legislation since FDR signed the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938. But now, five years later, according to a recent POLITICO investigation [3], not a single one of the new rules has been implemented and the entire mission has a $276-million funding gap. So what happened?
The FSMA, which affects every facet of the nation’s food system, was a big victory for Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), the bill’s author, who had been advocating food-safety reform for two decades. (Dingell stepped down in January and was succeeded by his wife Debbie Dingell, also a Democrat.) The bill gives the FDA — which is responsible for 80 percent of America’s food supply — additional authority to regulate food facilities, establish safe produce standards, issue mandatory food recalls, oversee imported foods and require improvements in surveillance and outbreak response. The new legislation also requires the agency to undertake over a dozen rule makings and issue at least 10 guidance documents. It had wide support from both trade associations and consumer advocacy groups, and was passed with strong bipartisan margins.