Lawmakers Blast Food Safety Loopholes

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News/AP

Lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday when told that food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep tests results secret. That keeps federal health officials in the dark even when products have been contaminated by salmonella or other dangerous bacteria.

"I'd like to see some people go to jail," Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said during a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on a deadly salmonella outbreak linked to a Georgia peanut plant that has sickened more than 550 people and killed at least eight.

Federal law does not require reporting of contaminants if companies receive private test results showing them or states find them in their inspections, said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, food safety director for the Food and Drug Administration.

"That's one of the very serious loopholes we need to plug," said Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican and the committee's ranking minority member.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/05/health/main4777358.shtml?tag=topHome;topStories

[OhioChick]

1. "Allowed to keep test results secret?"

That's bullshit and needs full transparency.

[NC_Nurse]

2. They are so good at shutting the barn door after the horses have all escaped.

Where were they when these loopholes were put into the original law?

Where were they when the SEC was weakened and pressured to back off during the Repub looting of the country? Now they all seem effin' amazed at what happened.

Losers.

[emilyg]

3. Exactly.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Why now?

Those loopholes have existed for half a century, and have been expanding all that time. Why do they care now?

[depakid]

6. "Why do they care now?"

Two reasons:

The chickens have come home to roost one too many times; and

Agribusiness (and the Dems who take money from them) have finally gotten it through their thick heads that these mass food poisonings are hurting their bottom lines much more than responsible regulation would.

[Metta]

5. Think of how much karma goes to those who stand in the way of this.

... waving as I go by. :toast:

[No Elephants]

7. "Lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday when told ..." When told? How come they don't know? What

the hell do we pay Congress and all the thousands of people who support Congress to do anyway? This is disgusting.