Food Safety Bill Passes Senate With Landrieu Amendment

Changes are on the way for the Food and Drug Administration, and the nation's food producers, at least if the Senate has any say in the matter.  Senator Mary Landrieu gives details in this press release. 

 United States Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today secured language to protect the Gulf Coast oyster industry in the Senate Food Safety Bill (S.510).  The legislation, which passed the Senate 73-25, would require the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct public health and cost assessments before issuing any new regulations affecting the processing and consumption of raw oysters.

In November of 2009, the FDA proposed a ban on all raw oysters from the Gulf of Mexico unless they underwent extensive post-harvesting processing that would have been cost-prohibitive for many oystermen in Louisiana.  The Louisiana delegation, along with the Gulf Coast oyster industry, successfully urged the FDA to change its position and put off any new regulation pending further economic analysis.

 “Last year, we were able to convince the FDA to reverse course on a plan that would put 3,500 Louisiana jobs and an entire industry at risk,” Sen. Landrieu said. “The FDA acknowledged that its original proposal was unreasonable and rightly changed direction. This amendment ensures that the FDA’s overreaching approach is abandoned for good and helps put us on a sustainable path forward to protecting the small number of at-risk consumers, while making sure our oyster industry is vibrant well into the future. We simply cannot afford another setback for our oyster industry as it recovers from the BP oil spill.”

“This amendment is critical to the Louisiana and Gulf Oyster Community as we work hard towards recovering from this past summer’s oil spill,”said Mike Voisin, member of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force and the owner of Motivatit Seafoods in Houma.  “Many may remember that it was just a year ago that the FDA unilaterally and outside of its normal regulatory procedures was suggesting that all oysters be required to be post harvest processed which would have been very detrimental to the Louisiana and Gulf Oyster community. That action would have removed traditional raw oysters from the market for a significant portion of the year and increased the costs of oysters substantially. This amendment requires that the FDA work within normal procedures and involve the States and Oyster Community in its decision making processes. We appreciate greatly the efforts to help protect the Louisiana and Gulf Oyster Community!”

Only 15 individuals with pre-existing conditions died from eating raw oysters last year. This accounts for less than one-quarter of one percent of all food-related deaths in the U.S. Five times as many Americans die each year from being struck by lightning than by consuming raw oysters.

Seafood Safety Amendment

In addition to the oyster language, Sen. Landrieu continued her efforts to strengthen inspection of seafood imported from other countries. Although not ultimately adopted by the Senate, the Landrieu amendment would have: 

• required that the FDA inspect 20 percent of seafood imports by 2015.  Currently, the FDA inspects less than two percent.
• created a “three strikes and you’re out” mechanism for bad actors who continuously offer tainted or adulterated seafood into the U.S.   The first violation results in a fine, the second violation bans the importer from offering seafood product until the importer provides substantiating evidence that seafood does not contain any banned substance by the FDA.  The third violation would result in the importer being banned from bringing product into the U.S.
• required that a food importer be registered with the FDA.  Once registered, that importer will receive a unique facility identifier.  This will help close the loophole of companies who get away without paying countervailing duties owed to the U.S.   Millions of dollars are owed to the U.S. from importers who disappear after importing shrimp, which undercuts our domestic producers of shrimp.
•  banned any country from exporting food into the U.S. if the country is listed as using child labor to produce food by the Department of Labor.   Currently, this would include countries such as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Thailand – countries known for sending seafood products tainted with chloramphenicol and other harmful substances.

             “U.S. shrimp fishermen are grateful for Senator Landrieu's bold leadership on the issue of contaminated seafood imports,” said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.  “We have documented repeatedly that unscrupulous companies use the same circumvention schemes--such as transshipment and mislabeling--to avoid both U.S. food safety laws and fair trade laws.”