FDA Updates Rules To Prevent Illness

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated food safety rules to prevent foodborne illnesses from happening.

In a press release, the FDA has announced that in finalizing two of seven major rules in the Food Safety Modernization Act, they have taken one of the most significant steps to prevent food-borne illnesses.

"[The] announcement sets us on the path to a modern food safety system that will prevent illnesses and continue to build confidence in the safety of the food served to our families every day," said Dr. Stephen Ostroff, acting FDA commissioner.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated one in six people get sick from eating contaminated food. That's 48 million people annually. Around 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die.The CDC further adds that Salmonella, the leading cause of most hospitalizations by food-borne illnesses, incurs $365 million in annual medical costs.

FDA's new rules focus on implementing modern food manufacturing processes for both human and animal foods, and its announcement hopes to ensure that food companies will take active action, and work with food safety authorities to prevent hazards that might affect customers, instead of just responding after something has happened.

The New York Times reports that the new rules will require food companies to write food plans detailing points in the manufacturing process that could be risky, and the steps that the respective company plans to take in addressing that risk.

According to FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine Michael R. Taylor, the task to "transform the whole food safety system" was one that took a lot of time and involved a lot of negotiations. He added that the finalization of the first rules in less than five years' time was a big accomplishment.

"We don't want to issue regulations that force change for change's sake if they don't make a real difference in food safety," he said. "Getting high rates of compliance is really the crucial issue."

Under the new rules, food manufacturing companies will also be required to keep written logs of their activities, and the FDA should be allowed to inspect them. 

David Plunkett, a senior staff lawyer at the Center for Science in the Public Interest's food safety program, said that this is a big change from earlier practices, where plants were not required to submit records for inspection.

The new law also gives the FDA more enforcement power. Before the law, FDA inspections were only conducted once every 10 years. By next year, with the law in place, inspections can be done every three years, with the FDA also having the authority to close a facility when food company plans and processes seem inadequate.