Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2009 > February > 11 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSenate committee approves bill for food safety in wake of salmonella outbreak
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A bill that would require Georgia food manufacturing plants — like the one linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella —to regularly test for contamination unanimously passed a Senate committee Wednesday.
The state Senate Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee approved SB 80, which chairman John Bulloch (R-Ochlocknee), said would throw “a red flag up” if a manufacturer found salmonella or some other contamination in a product.
The bill requires regular testing of food samples and reporting of any contamination found to the state Department of Agriculture. The company must also keep records of the tests for two years.
“If this bill had been in place, there would have been a red flag raised because of the tests coming back,” Bulloch said. He was referring to the case of the Peanut Corp. of America, which is under investigation as the source of the nationwide salmonella outbreak. The company had tested its product and found salmonella and then re-tested and found none. It then proceeded to sell the product.
“No, this won’t guarantee that we won’t have another contamination problem coming out of a Georgia plant,” Bulloch said. The bill would get the state Department of Agriculture involved earlier, he said. But that won’t be enough, he said.
“The federal government, they’re going to have to step up oversight,” Bulloch added.
State Department of Agriculture Commissioner Tommy Irvin watched the committee pass the bill and later congratulated the senators.
“You are going to be the national leader,” Irvin said. “Take pride in the fact that Georgia will be first.”
Irvin said his department would need more inspectors to work on testing of food samples if the bill becomes law. Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) has already said that the Department of Agriculture has seen its budget grow and might need to shift its resources.
“If they don’t load us down too much, I think we can find ways to accomplish the goals,” Irvin said.
The department may use local boards of health to help, he said.
He added that his department would probably need to switch inspectors from duties such as verifying the expiration dates on products, and put them to work on testing of food samples.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: Legislature
Comments