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Lawmakers pressing for stricter food import regulations and mandatory recalls of tainted products see a potential vehicle in food safety legislation expected within the next week from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Panel Chairman John D. Dingell, D-Mich, unveiled a discussion draft last September (HR 3610) and has been working on a revised version. His staff says the measure is still a work in progress and has released no specific changes or additions.

Panel Vice Chairwoman Diana DeGette, D-Colo., hopes to see several proposals she has offered included in the measure. In September, she offered a bill (HR 3484) that would give the government the authority to stop the distribution of tainted foods. Today, federal inspectors are powerless to withdraw products already in the food supply, with the exception of baby formula.

Another DeGette proposal (HR 3485) would require that the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department create a system for tracking products from their origins to the grocery store. That would enable faster recalls.

A spokesman said DeGette, a long-time advocate of mandatory recalls, was pleased to see that the Dingell draft measure included recall language. But the trace-back system was not in the plan. Both proposals also apply to foods under the purview of the Agriculture Department, which is outside of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction.

DeGette recently has been focused on building support among panel members because Dingell has made food safety a priority, said Kristofer Eisenla, DeGette’s spokesman.

“We want to assist the committee in the best way we can to move their legislation forward,” Eisenla said. “We’re trying to add value to the committee’s legislation,” which DeGette already sees as strong, he added.
GOP Proposal

On April 8, Illinois Republicans Peter Roskam and Mark Steven Kirk unveiled a proposal intended to reduce vulnerabilities in the modern food import system, using FDA’s limited resources.

The lawmakers want to close a loophole in current law that allows importers and private laboratories to withhold information from the FDA when foods fail testing. The proposal would increase fines for importers and labs that falsify or knowingly submit falsified data. It also would permit the Secretary of Health and Human Services to waive a costly certification process by documenting for Congress that a foreign firm’s food safety standards are at least equal to U.S. standards.

“While the volume of FDA-regulated imports has more than tripled in the past decade, funding and staffing have not,” Roskam said on Tuesday. “However, throwing money at the problem is not the only solution. In these tight fiscal times, we must better leverage FDA resources to efficiently ensure the safety and security of our nation’s food supply.”

Roskam feels the proposal complements Dingell’s measure, said Matthew Vriesema, his press secretary.

Dingell’s measure, as originally drafted, would allow HHS to collect user fees on food and drug imports to pay for hiring additional federal inspectors and for enhanced food analysis. It also would mandate country-of-origin labels for food, drugs and medical devices.

A spokeswoman for the committee said she could not confirm what provisions would be in the final version, because it is still being drafted.