Federal Law Allows Food Companies, State Agencies To Keep Test Results Secret

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers reacted angrily Thursday when told that food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep test 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.

EDIT

Leahy said food manufacturers should face possible jail time and other tough penalties to beef up compliance with federal food safety rules. "Fines won't do it," he said.

EDIT

http://www.northjersey.com/news/health/39188477.html

[underpants]

1. Fix it

NOW

[emilyg]

2. k

[tom_paine]

3. People need to know about this. Maybe wirth a crosspost in GD?

:hi:

[One_Life_To_Give]

4. Do you really want to know

exactly how many rat hairs are in a ton of peanut butter? Or do you want to know that it meets government standards? What that company did was inexcysable, but that doesn't mean people want to be presented with more than just it's safe or not safe.

[snot]

5. Testing should be mandatory and disclosed,

and I'd have more trust in its accuracy and efficiency if it were performed by the government.