USP Supports FDA & Food Safety Modernization Act

Posted January 19, 2011

On January 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the landmark FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (H.R. 2751). This is a signal event that should mark the beginning of a renewed focus on the quality and security of the American food supply in an age of globalized, industrialized food production. While modern food production techniques have allowed broad access to a wider variety of lower-priced foods, they have also led to greater opportunities for accidental contamination or even deliberate adulteration. The American food supply is still the safest in the world, but consumer confidence has been shaken by a series of high-profile incidents in which tainted foods—spinach, tomatoes, peanuts, eggs, and more—have sickened and even killed people. American citizens have a right to expect safe food, and the Congress and President are to be commended for coming together to enact this important legislation.

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a scientific public health organization that sets FDA-enforceable standards for the quality, identity, purity, and strength of prescription and over-the-counter medicines in the United States. USP also sets quality standards for food ingredients and dietary supplements, used by many manufacturers to help ensure product quality. USP standards are used in more than 130 countries around the world. As a public health organization, USP applauds the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act. Broader authority for FDA, including the ability to require recalls of contaminated foods, more rigorous inspection of domestic and overseas facilities, and pilot projects to improve tracking and tracing of foods (especially in cases of food-borne illness or possible adulteration) will all go a long way to restoring the confidence of the American public in the food they eat.

Passage of this Act comes at a time of fiscal urgency. All programs have advocates who make eloquent arguments about why their funding should be spared. We at USP strongly believe that the health and safety of citizens' foods and medicines should always be a priority. At a moment when FDA has been given authority it has long needed to enact its vital public health mission with regard to foods, it is important that the agency have the funding necessary to carry out that newly invigorated mission. USP—a member of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA—hopes that will happen.