October 3, 2007 - Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Connecticut), chair of the House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, outlined her vision for the future of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a policy address hosted by the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services.

To prioritize food safety within the federal government, DeLauro announced the Food Safety Modernization Act that she plans to introduce. It will establish a separate Food Safety Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services, and provide its Administrator with greater authority to protect consumers from food-borne illnesses.

“I think there is real momentum in this nation for reform – addressing not only a rising flood of imports, but also the serious need to reexamine our entire food safety system here at home,” DeLauro said, citing recent food safety problems ranging from salmonella-contaminated peanut butter to last weekend's recall of 21.7 million pounds of beef due to possible E. coli contamination.

DeLauro identified several principles for reforming food safety: addressing fragmented structure of the current food safety system; raising the visibility of food safety, which has long been relegated to second-tier status at FDA; and giving food safety a better platform to compete for resources and funding.

“The American people rely on the food safety system to protect them, yet for 76 million Americans who become ill or 5,000 who die every year from food-borne illness, it fails them, and in doing so it fails all of us,” DeLauro said. “We can and must do better.”

Read more:
Congresswoman DeLauro's prepared remarks
Congresswoman DeLauro's website
Presentation on food safety by Michael Taylor at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services
Blog posts on the presentation by Susan Wood and Kristen Perosino