Editorial: Concerns Raise over Food Safety Law Changes

The latest US amendment on food safety legislation has come under fire from the cattle sector because it is concerned that the new law discriminates between large and small operators.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says that food safety knows no bounds and legislation should not be different for one part of the industry compared to another.

(NCBA) has said it is disappointed the US Senate has voted to move forward with the Food Safety Modernization Act.

NCBA has opposed an amendment offered by Senators John Tester and Kay Hagan to the Food Safety Modernization Act exempting small food producers and processors and has called on Senators to oppose final passage.

NCBA’s Executive Director of Legislative Affairs Kristina Butts said basing exemptions on size, location and proximity to the markets does not make food safer.

While the NCBS has been raising legal worries about food safety, in Canada, Maple Leaf Foods, that itself had been at the centre of a major Listeria outbreak, has taken steps to ensure that the food safety message is reaching the general public.

Maple Leaf Foods and the Science Teachers' Association of Ontario (STAO) have launched a series of innovative resources to increase elementary and secondary school teachers' awareness of food safety and support curriculum-related areas of study.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency has welcomed recommendations made by the coroner at the inquest into the tragic death of Mason Jones, the five-year-old boy who died in the E.coli outbreak in south Wales in 2005.

The coroner has recommended stronger enforcement of food hygiene laws.

About 160 people became ill in the 2005 outbreak. As a result, William John Tudor of John Tudor & Son, Bridgend, was jailed for a year at Cardiff Crown Court after pleading guilty to seven offences relating to the supply of meat contaminated with E.coli O157 to schools.

Chris Harris

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