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Food Safety Legislation Would Strengthen Penalties for Violations

A new piece of legislation just introduced in the U.S. Senate would hold food safety violators accountable for their actions, and would strengthen penalties for these violations.  The bill was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy Democrat-Vermont, and is called the Food Safety Accountability Act.  The bill will provide for the creation of criminal offenses for any individual or company that knowingly distributes contaminated or dangerous food products.

The bill would set penalties and fines for individuals or companies who violate these codes.  According to Senator Leahy, Americans should be confident that the food they eat is safe for them and their families. California food poisoning lawyers agree that the current fines and penalties that are in place for food safety violations, are far too inadequate to act as a deterrent to those who place the public at risk from contaminated products.  Very often, manufacturers, producers and other entities consider the cost of fines and penalties as the cost of doing business.  The bill would allow prosecutors to seek out tougher penalties and longer sentences for those who violate food safety laws.  If the bill became law, it would allow prosecutors to seek prison sentences of a maximum of 10 years for someone who knowingly distributes contaminated food in the system.

According to the senator’s office, he is promoting the legislation in the wake of the egg salmonella contamination scandal.  Approximately 1,500 people have been sickened by eating salmonella-contaminated eggs that were ultimately traced to two Iowa egg farms.  The two firms, Wright County Egg and Hallandale Farms recalled more than half a billion eggs in the recall, the largest in recent history.  It also led to Congressional hearings, and a renewed look at whether the Food And Drug Administration’s new egg safety laws are even enough to prevent such episodes of contamination or infection again.

This July, the Food and Drug Administration’s new laws on egg safety went into effect.  The laws would give the agency greater powers to inspect farms.  However, they fall short of stronger measures that would minimize the incidence of salmonella food poisoning in eggs.  The agency for instance, failed to require that all hens be vaccinated against salmonellosis, to prevent contamination of eggs.  Such vaccination programs have been very successful in countries like the UK, where the incidence of salmonella poisoning has declined dramatically since mandatory vaccination programs went into effect.  However, the Food and Drug Administration said it wasn’t convinced that a vaccination program would prevent salmonella contamination in eggs, and make American consumers safer.

The egg epidemic has been the most recent in a series of outbreaks traced to contaminated food.  Everything from peanut butter to lettuce and tomatoes has been blamed for number for a series of Salmonella poisoning outbreaks in recent years.  We need stronger laws that don’t just prevent contamination in the food supply, but also hold manufacturers and producers accountable for violations, and levy stiff fines against them.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of food poisoning. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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