With tainted food scares and recalls on the rise in the United States, the passage of the U.S. Senate Food Safety Modernization Act on November 30, 2010 could herald a fundamental change in the way food contaminations are handled, if reconciliation with a similar U.S. House of Representative bill from July can be achieved.

According to Alan Schoem, Senior Vice President in Marsh Risk Consulting’s Product Risk Practice, reaching consensus may prove difficult during this lame duck session of Congress.

"The Senate bill is currently being reviewed by the House of Representatives and if changes are made, the Senate will need to approve it once again. This process is further complicated by Senate inclusion of a revenue provision allowing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to impose fees on importers and companies whose contaminated food is recalled. Revenue-raising bills—which this could be categorized as—are supposed to originate in the House,” notes Schoem.   

Although there is support for the legislation on Capitol Hill, it may not be enacted. At the very least, several of its provisions may be viewed as best practices that should be adopted by the food industry voluntarily.

The bill’s provisions would require, for example, owners and operators of food facilities to identify and evaluate known or reasonably foreseeable hazards that may be associated with the facility; owners and operators of food facilities to develop a written analysis of the hazards and to identify and implement preventive controls; and farmers and food makers to keep distribution records so the FDA could more quickly trace a food issue to its source. It would also add more than 17,000 FDA inspectors by 2014 and introduce many new FDA procedures and processes.

Schoem advises that, “Companies in the food industry – excluding meat, poultry, or processed eggs, which are regulated by the Department of Agriculture – should review the bill closely and begin considering if best practice risk management measures are already in place in their organization or need to be implemented to ensure compliance with the bill’s provisions, should it be signed into law. Assessments, gap analyses, and similar tools can help organizations to uncover any vulnerabilities in their food supply chain and then make informed decisions about safety-related actions to be taken.”

MRC’s Product Risk Practice and Marsh’s Product Recall Practice can help affected food organization to understand the impact of the Food Modernization Act on their organizations, support efforts to bridge best practice gaps, and assist with identifying and accessing appropriate risk transfer options.

To learn more, please contact your local Marsh representative or click the links elsewhere on this page.