U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
WASHINGTON – Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants to crack down on the number of foodborne illnesses that take place in this country by creating a new food safety oversight agency.
On Thursday New York’s junior senator provided more details of her Safe Food Act of 2015, a new bill introduced last week which would consolidate food safety authorities into a single independent food safety agency called the Food Safety Administration.
Under the current system, 15 different federal agencies oversee food safety functions including inspections, enforcement, recalls and restrictions on pathogens like Salmonella and E.coli. According to a Government Accountability Agency study, the fragmented and inefficient system is a high risk to the public’s safety.
A release from Gillibrand’s office says each year, 1 in 6 Americans get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die due to foodborne diseases.
Gillibrand’s proposed consolidated agency would help prevent foodborne illness by allowing food recalls to happen more quickly once illnesses are confirmed, improving inspections, and enhancing enforcement against unsafe food.
The Food Safety Administration would also protect and improve the public’s health by focusing resources to prevent and detect foodborne illness before it spreads rather than responding after New Yorkers have already fallen ill.
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