What exactly does the new FDA Food Saftey Modernization Act do?

As many people were aware, the US Congress was working hard on passing a law to "modernize food safety". Many know this bill as S 510. Well, ultimately S 510 was replaced with HR 2751 and was passed into law and signed by President Obama on January 4, 2011.

But what does this bill do?

Well, in the ATS spirit of collaboration and dissection, and as witnessed with the dissection of the health care bill last year, DaMod and I have decided to start a thread that will allow users to parse and dissect the bill to determine exactly what rights and priveledges we have given away now.

The text of the law is located here: www.gpo.gov...

Let the dissections begin!

Here is a quick reference of the various sections in the bill.

Sec. 1. Short title; references; table of contents.

TITLE I—IMPROVING CAPACITY TO PREVENT FOOD SAFETY PROBLEMS
Sec. 101. Inspections of records.
Sec. 102. Registration of food facilities.
Sec. 103. Hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls.
Sec. 104. Performance standards.
Sec. 105. Standards for produce safety.
Sec. 106. Protection against intentional adulteration.
Sec. 107. Authority to collect fees.
Sec. 108. National agriculture and food defense strategy.
Sec. 109. Food and Agriculture Coordinating Councils.
Sec. 110. Building domestic capacity.
Sec. 111. Sanitary transportation of food.
Sec. 112. Food allergy and anaphylaxis management.
Sec. 113. New dietary ingredients.
Sec. 114. Requirement for guidance relating to post harvest processing of raw oysters.
Sec. 115. Port shopping.
Sec. 116. Alcohol-related facilities.

TITLE II—IMPROVING CAPACITY TO DETECT AND RESPOND TO FOOD SAFETY PROBLEMS
Sec. 201. Targeting of inspection resources for domestic facilities, foreign facilities,
and ports of entry; annual report.
Sec. 202. Laboratory accreditation for analyses of foods.
Sec. 203. Integrated consortium of laboratory networks.
Sec. 204. Enhancing tracking and tracing of food and recordkeeping.
Sec. 205. Surveillance.
Sec. 206. Mandatory recall authority.
Sec. 207. Administrative detention of food.
Sec. 208. Decontamination and disposal standards and plans.
Sec. 209. Improving the training of State, local, territorial, and tribal food safety officials.
Sec. 210. Enhancing food safety.
Sec. 211. Improving the reportable food registry.

TITLE III—IMPROVING THE SAFETY OF IMPORTED FOOD
Sec. 301. Foreign supplier verification program.
Sec. 302. Voluntary

Sec.102(c)

CLARIFICATION OF INTENT.—
(1) RETAIL FOOD ESTABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall amend the definition of the term ‘‘retail food establishment’’ in section in 1.227(b)(11) of title 21, Code of Federal Regulations to clarify that, in determining the primary function of an establishment or a retail food establishment under such section, the sale of food products directly to consumers by such establishment and the sale of food directly to consumers by such retail food establishment include—
(A) the sale of such food products or food directly to consumers by such establishment at a roadside stand or farmers’ market where such stand or market is located other than where the food was manufactured or processed;
(B) the sale and distribution of such food through a community supported agriculture program; and
(C) the sale and distribution of such food at any other such direct sales platform as determined by the Secretary.

(2) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of paragraph (1)—
(A) the term ‘‘community supported agriculture program’’ has the same meaning given the term ‘‘community
supported agriculture (CSA) program’’ in section 249.2 of title 7, Code of Federal Regulations (or any successor regulation); and
(B) the term ‘‘consumer’’ does not include a business.

The relevant affected Title 21 section 1.227

(11)Retail food establishment means an establishment that sells food products directly to consumers as its primary function. A retail food establishment may manufacture/process, pack, or hold food if the establishment's primary function is to sell from that establishment food, including food that it manufactures/processes, packs, or holds, directly to consumers. A retail food establishment's primary function is to sell food directly to consumers if the annual monetary value of sales of food products directly to consumers exceeds the annual monetary value of sales of food products to all other buyers. The term "consumers" does not include businesses. A "retail food establishment" includes grocery stores, convenience stores, and vending machine locations.

www.accessdata.fda.gov...



This would appear to have the effect of protecting roadside stands and farmers markets from having to register as a "Food facility".. not entirely sure what that means yet.

incidentally, here is the public announcement from the FDA www.fda.gov...

reply to post by rogerstigers


Good idea.

I want to state up front that a lawyer warned that stuff may be hidden from ordinary readers. The meaning of a word, its position in a sentence, and punctuation all can change the actual legal meaning from the apparent everyday meeting.

The other thing that is very dangerous is AMENDMENTS

One only has to look at the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, with its over 100 amendments to realize the original meaning and intent can be warped out of all recognition by a few sentences or a paragraph attached here or there to other bills and slipped into law without anyone noticing until the officials come knocking on YOUR door.

reply to post by rogerstigers

RETAIL FOOD ESTABLISHMENT

Well that definition seems to include all sales of food including fresh veggies except directly from the farmers garden at his farm.

It also includes all food sold at church bake sales, fish frys and BBQs. One wonders if a priest or minister will be allowed to give communion without FDA licensing???

A similar law Pennsylvania has already criminalized church events:

As the article below will show, and without ever “saying” they are “criminalizing church events,”...and in the end, effectively “criminalizing church events,” and one might add “religious celebrations, traditional food, ethnic food, charity bazaars, bake sales, ….”

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Pennsylvania has criminalized pies, and raided a church that tried to sell them at its annual fundraiser:

ROCHESTER, Pa. — On the first Friday of Lent, an elderly female parishioner of St. Cecilia Catholic Church began unwrapping pies at the church. That’s when the trouble started. A state inspector, there for an annual checkup on the church’s kitchen, spied the desserts. After it was determined that the pies were home-baked, the inspector decreed they couldn’t be sold.

“Everyone was devastated,” says Josie Reed, a 69-year-old former teacher known for her pumpkin and berry pies. Sold for $1 a slice, homemade pies have always been part of the Lenten fish-fry dinners at St. Cecilia’s, located in this tiny city near Pittsburgh. Similar dinners are held in church basements and other venues across the country this time of year…."

The problem is the pies are illegal in Pennsylvania. Under the state’s food-safety code, facilities that provide food at four or more events in a year require at least a temporary eating and drinking license, and food has to be prepared in a state-inspected kitchen. Many churches have six fish fries a year, on Fridays during Lent. St. Cecilia’s has always complied with having its kitchen licensed, so food made there is fine to serve. But homemade goods don’t make the cut.' farmwars.info...

Why doesn't this have attention?! :O
Bump! Old post but i just saw this:
www.youtube.com...

I would need a few days or even up to a week to look this over completely.

Het RS
sandf
this is like the "D for draconian" in fDa
I"ll leave what the "F" and the "A" stand for up to the readers' discernment.
On another thread we have the woman who faces jail over a garden in her front yard...
Also there are many "raw milk" swat team incidents...

As I understand it
Having nutrition is one of the freedoms "They" hate us for..
Like the farmers in Iraq who must use monsanto and where saving viable seeds is Verboten
Soon the only legal food will be poison

Originally posted by Danbones
Het RS
sandf
this is like the "D for draconian" in fDa
I"ll leave what the "F" and the "A" stand for up to the readers' discernment.
On another thread we have the woman who faces jail over a garden in her front yard...
Also there are many "raw milk" swat team incidents...

As I understand it
Having nutrition is one of the freedoms "They" hate us for..
Like the farmers in Iraq who must use monsanto and where saving viable seeds is Verboten
Soon the only legal food will be poison

edit on 9-7-2011 by Danbones because: (no reason given)

This isn't Codex Alumintarius as that died a slow painful death in late 09.