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U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone joined food safety advocates in calling for the U.S. Senate to act on pending legislation to make producers do more to keep food clean at the source.

At a gathering Aug. 27 in New Brunswick, Pallone joined food scientists and consumer advocates to push the Food Safety Enhancement Act.

The recall of more than half a billion contaminated eggs shows the need for the stronger protections, which have already passed the House of Representatives, said Pallone, one of the authors of the bill.

"The Salmonella outbreak is more evidence of the vulnerability of the food supply to contamination," Pallone said in a statement released by his office.

Each year, there are an estimated 76 million cases of sickness from contaminated food, 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die. The U.S. department of Agriculture puts the cost of these events at $6.9 billion a year, according to Pallone.

He cited a recent Congressional hearing that included testimony about a 3-year-old who suffered kidney failure from eating contaminated spinach. In recent years, Americans have suffered from widespread outbreaks of E. coli bacteria, Salmonella and melamine in basic foodstuffs.

While some of the outbreaks have been regional in nature, the widespread distribution of food products through supermarket and restaurant chains can increase the odds of exposure beyond a producer's local customer base.

"The need for improved safety standards and procedures assumes greater urgency in light of the Salmonella-tainted eggs and subsequent recall," Pallone said.

Many of these problems are preventable, he said, "we have the knowledge and the ability to make the food system safer."

The legislation would require several preventative steps to be funded by food producers rather than taxpayers. It requires updating the registry of food facilities and requires them to have safety plans.

On the regulatory side, it would increase the number of inspectors, which has been a sore point among consumer advocates. It would require steps to improve the ability to trace food products along production and distribution routes to identify the sources of contamination more quickly.

The requirements are aimed primarily at large-scale industrial producers and "factory farms," with an exemption for small facilities that are not covered by the bioterrorism law regulations.

But the bill would increase oversight over imported foods, to ensure the purity of products from companies with less stringent oversight.

Under current law, the Federal Food and Drug Administration lacks the power to prevent food-borne illnesses. Instead, it tracks health reports and responds to suspicious increases in food-related sicknesses, but cannot actually shut down a plant that is spreading salmonella.

The law would improve the agency's ability to inspect production facilities and give it the power to close any that do not comply with science-based regulations to prevent food-borne health problems.

Pallone was joined by Professor Donald Schaffner, director of the Center for Advanced Food Technology at Rutgers University, Surur Fatima Sajanlal of NJ PIRG, Jim Walsh from Food & Water Watch, and Michael Hansen, the senior staff scientist with Consumers Union.

"It is in everyone's interest _ especially the food industry _ to maintain confidence in the Nation's food supply," Pallone said. "Parents need to know the food they feed their families is safe and the food industry needs to have the public's trust."

– JOE TYRRELL, NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM