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Klobuchar Announces Food Safety Accountability Act Passes Committee

Klobuchar renews her call to pass comprehensive food safety bill

September 23, 2010

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar announced today that the Judiciary Committee approved legislation strengthening penalties against companies that knowingly violate food safety standards and endanger American lives. The Food Safety Accountability Act, introduced by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and cosponsored by Klobuchar, increases the sentences that prosecutors can seek for people who knowingly contaminate the food supply from a maximum of three years in prison to up to 10 years. These offenses, now considered misdemeanors, would be felonies under the bill.

“The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens,” Klobuchar said. “When companies or individuals make the conscious decision to allow unsafe and contaminated food to wind up on our dinner plates – knowing full well there is a chance that consumers might die from it – they should face stiff consequences.”

Last year, the Peanut Corporation of America sold peanut products that it knew were contaminated with salmonella, resulting in one of the largest food recalls in history. The outbreak left nine people dead, including three Minnesotans, and left hundreds more sick.

Klobuchar has led the effort to reform the nation’s food safety system and, in a speech on the Senate floor today, renewed her call to pass comprehensive food safety legislation.  In her remarks, Klobuchar urged passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would strengthen the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to ensure a safer food supply and help prevent outbreaks from happening in the first place. The bill includes the Food Safety Rapid Response Act, bipartisan legislation that Klobuchar introduced with along with Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).  The bill strengthens federal, state, and local officials’ ability to investigate outbreaks using the procedures of the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and the University of Minnesota as national models for improved food safety surveillance. 

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