Food safety law gives bigger role to state officials
WASHINGTON — With the most extensive food safety regulations in history set to take effect soon, state agriculture officials across the country are preparing to enforce the federal law but say their ability to inspect farms and enforce the standards depends on promised federal funds.
The law — which Congress approved in 2011 following several high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, linked to contaminated spinach, tomatoes and peanut products — comes at a time when demand for fresh vegetables is increasing. And it marks a shift in focus for the nation’s food safety system, from containing foodborne illnesses once they occur to preventing those outbreaks in the first place.
It gives the U.S. Food and Drug Administration new authority to regulate the production of fresh fruit and vegetables. It also imposes the same food safety standards on imports as it does on domestic foods, and includes provisions to create a more integrated food safety system across federal, state and local governments.
The law, known as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act and set to take effect gradually through 2020, applies to all farms except meat, poultry and egg producers. Farms that have less than $500,000 in annual sales are not covered, although their buyers may insist that they adhere to the same standards.
And the FDA reserves a key role for states in ensuring that farmers comply with new standards for water quality, sanitation, the handling and composition of compost, and worker training and hygiene. That means on-site inspections and laboratory testing water used in irrigation and soil used in planting.
“State agriculture and public health personnel are the ones who have built relationships with and knowledge of local farming communities and practices and can often deliver oversight most efficiently,” top FDA officials wrote last month. “But almost all states will have to build produce safety programs largely or completely from scratch. We want to rely on them, not only to deliver education and technical assistance, but also to provide ongoing compliance support and oversight.”
Several states that produce little of the fresh fruit and vegetables covered by the law — states such as Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming — are expected to opt out, leaving that work to federal authorities. But Bob Ehart, a senior policy and science adviser of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, which has worked closely with the FDA, said that most states, particularly those with extensive food production, seem likely to work with the federal government to carry out the law. The largest producers of fruits and vegetables are California, Florida and Washington.
Under the law, the federal government is to pay for those new state activities. Several state agriculture departments say it’s too soon to know how much it will cost them. But many are now preparing applications to the FDA, seeking a share of the $19 million that Congress set aside in 2016 to help states determine what they need to do to help enforce the law.
The new food safety push comes as the federal government is encouraging Americans to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables, and consumers are following that advice.
But while the federal government and states have long regulated some areas of food production and handling, such as food processing and animal feed, fresh fruit and vegetable growers have largely been left to their own devices.
Several lethal outbreaks of foodborne illnesses convinced lawmakers in both parties, as well as industry groups and public health advocacy organizations, that the U.S. food safety system was antiquated and illequipped to prevent future outbreaks, Ehart said.