NEWS - Senators push to boost FDA food safety system

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Senators push to boost FDA food safety system

Malone, News Service

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the assistant Democratic leader,

announced the bipartisan effort as he declared the U.S. food safety

system to be " outdated, underfunded and overwhelmed. "

The legislation, whose co-sponsors include Sens. Saxby Chambliss,

R-Ga., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., would give the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration new powers to review food processing and lab testing

records. For the first time, the FDA would be authorized to order

mandatory recalls if contamination is suspected.

The bill also would boost resources for the FDA, adding $825 million

to hire more inspectors to monitor U.S. facilities as well as foreign

plants seeking to import food products.

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Read the entire article here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/03/MN6S168JQ6.DTL

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