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Showing posts with label Food and Drug Administration. Show all posts

Food Safety Modernization Act: Putting the Focus on Prevention

Posted by White House

Even before the President signs the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the passage of this legislation set in motion sweeping improvements to the security and safety of our nation’s food supply.

Each year, foodborne illness strikes 48 million Americans, hospitalizing a hundred thousand and killing thousands. I thank the President and members of Congress for recognizing that the burden that foodborne illness places on the American people is too great, and for taking this action.

The historic legislation the President will sign tomorrow directs the Food and Drug Administration, working with a wide range of public and private partners, to build a new system of food safety oversight – one focused on applying, more comprehensively than ever, the best available science and good common sense to prevent the problems that can make people sick.

The idea of prevention is not new. FDA has established prevention-oriented standards and rules for seafood, juice, and eggs, as has the U.S. Department of Agriculture for meat and poultry, and many in the food industry have pioneered “best practices” for prevention. What’s new is the recognition that, for all the strengths of the American food system, a breakdown at any point on the farm-to-table spectrum can cause catastrophic harm to the health of consumers and great disruption and economic loss to the food industry.

So, we need to look at the food system as a whole, be clear about the food safety responsibility of all of its participants, and strengthen accountability for prevention throughout the entire food system – domestically and internationally. The new law meets these needs in numerous ways.

For example, processors of all types of food will now be required to evaluate the hazards in their operations, implement and monitor effective measures to prevent contamination, and have a plan in place to take any corrective actions that are necessary. Also, FDA will have much more effective enforcement tools for ensuring those plans are adequate and properly implemented, including mandatory recall authority when needed to swiftly remove contaminated food from the market.

We will, in accordance with the law, establish science-based standards for the safe production and harvesting of fruits and vegetables to minimize the risk of serious illnesses or death, and we will set standards for the safe transportation of food.

Moreover, with the signing of the law, FDA will for the first time have a congressional mandate for risk-based inspection of food processing facilities. For example, all high-risk domestic facilities must be inspected within five years of enactment and no less than every three years thereafter.

The legislation significantly enhances FDA’s ability to oversee the millions of food products coming into the United States from other countries each year.

Among the improvements is the requirement that importers verify the safety of food from their suppliers and the authority for the FDA to block foods from facilities or countries that refuse our inspection. FDA will also be working more closely with foreign governments and increasing its inspection of foreign food facilities. FDA’s new import tool kit will have a huge impact on food safety given that an estimated 15 percent of the U.S. food supply is imported, including 60 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood.

Very importantly, the FSMA calls for the strengthening of existing collaboration among all food safety agencies whether they are Federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, or foreign. Among other provisions, the legislation directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to improve training of state, local, territorial and tribal food safety officials and authorizes grants for training, conducting inspections, building capacity of labs and food safety programs, and other food safety activities. Building and leveraging the capacity of these food safety partners is how we can have a well-integrated, national food safety system that is as effective and efficient as it can be.

Now, the task falls to the FDA to carry out the direction we’ve been given. We are hard at work planning how we will put this law into effect. As we look to make the improvements called for in the legislation, we must ask ourselves many questions. What resources do we already have? What resources will we need? Where will those resources come from? Already we know that the legislation did not include sufficient fee resources to cover the costs of the new requirements. In that, we will look to Congress to work with us to ensure that FDA has what’s needed to achieve our shared food safety and food defense goals.

This law represents a sea change for food safety in America, bringing a new focus on prevention, and I expect that in the coming years it will have a dramatic and positive effect on the safety of the food supply.

The Beginning of the End of the Tobacco Epidemic

Posted by White House

Today is the beginning of the end of the tobacco epidemic. You may have already heard about the new dramatic graphic labels that are being proposed for every pack of cigarettes, which are the biggest step forward in 25 years to warn people about the dangers of smoking and help people stop before they start -- but that’s only part of it.

Today, this administration, through the work being done at HHS, is unveiling its first ever comprehensive tobacco control plan – laying out strategic actions that will serve as a roadmap to reduce smoking rates, help tobacco users quit, and prevent children from starting to smoke in the first place.

Every day, nearly 4,000 kids under 18 try their first cigarette, and some 1,000 kids under 18 become daily smokers. And 443,000 Americans die prematurely each year from smoking and second hand smoke exposure, making it our country's leading cause of preventable death. It also costs our health care system almost $100 billion a year.

When this Administration took office, we decided that if these numbers weren’t changing, our actions had to – which is why today marks an important milestone in protecting our children and the health of the American public.

The strategic action plan unveiled today includes a proposed rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) titled Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements. Specifically, the proposed rule will drastically change the look and message of each pack of cigarettes by adding new graphic warning labels with pictures showing the negative health consequences of smoking, including some images of the damage that cigarettes do to our bodies to every pack.

When this rule becomes effective in 2012, people who pick up packs of cigarettes are going to know exactly what risks they are taking. Ultimately, companies will be prohibited from manufacturing cigarettes without new graphic health warnings on their packages.

This rule is in addition to progress we’ve already made to encourage people to quit smoking, and to prevent them from ever starting, after historic legislation passed last June gave FDA the prohibiting marketing aimed at children.

And, for the first time, Medicare will cover tobacco cessation for all beneficiaries, allowing people to get help quitting tobacco before they get sick.

We are also funding comprehensive state and local programs around the country for reducing tobacco use – programs like the one in Ringgold County, Iowa, where they are using evidence-based tobacco control interventions to decrease tobacco use in low-income, rural populations.

These are just some of the strategic actions in our comprehensive tobacco control plan.

Going forward, HHS has charted a clear path to ending tobacco use in our country. We have a long way to go, but we won’t rest until we’ve eliminated tobacco-related disease and suffering. The prosperity and health of our country depends on it.

Seafood from Open Gulf Waters is Safe to Eat

Posted by White House

With the ongoing reopening of Gulf fisheries, fishermen are going back to work and Americans can confidently and safely enjoy Gulf seafood again.

Consumers need to know that seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is safe and fishermen need to be able to sell their products with confidence. That’s why there’s a comprehensive, coordinated, and multi-agency program to ensure the safety of Gulf Coast seafood. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are working with other Federal agencies and state officials to closely monitor the situation and its potential impact on the safety of seafood.

Seafood from open waters is safe to eat. Here are the facts:

Every seafood sample from reopened waters has passed testing.
When waters were impacted by oil or at risk of being impacted by oil, they were closed to fisherman.
Areas considered for reopening must be free of oil before testing even starts.
Dispersants were not applied in areas that are opened for fishing, and tests of reopened waters do not show the presence of any dispersants.
FDA and NOAA test samples for oil and dispersants, and every sample from reopened waters has passed those tests.

Here are more resources to get the latest information on seafood safety:

From FDA.gov:

From NOAA.gov:

We will continue to update this blog post with the latest on Gulf seafood safety, so check back.