WASHINGTON – During last week’s Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on food safety, the Bush Administration’s “food safety czar” Dr. David W.K. Acheson, MD, Assistant Commissioner for Food Protection, testified that he supported the idea of traceability. Energy and Commerce Committee Vice Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) has proposed developing a food product traceability system, H.R. 3485.
Below is a transcript of the testimony:
Dr. Acheson: Well, let me ask you, if I may, if you’ve eaten a tomato in the last week, do you know where it came from?
Chairman Stupak: No, because you won’t implement country of origin labeling. If you had country of origin labeling, I would know where the tomato came from, and you could focus resources on Mexico if that’s where we believe the salmonella is coming from, as opposed to New Mexico and Texas and the other states you’re sort of spinning the wheels on.
Congresswoman DeGette: Will the Chairman yield? Or if we had traceability.
Chairman Stupak: Right.
Dr. Acheson: I would support that. Absolutely. I think traceability is a far more powerful tool than country of origin labeling in terms of food safety.
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