Obama To Sign Historic Food Safety Bill Into Law

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama on Tuesday was expected to sign the most sweeping overhaul of America's food safety system since 1938.

The legislation would give the federal Food and Drug Administration the authority to impose new rules to prevent contamination and allows the agency to order, rather than simply suggest, the recall of tainted foods. It also would authorize the creation of a food tracking system to quickly pinpoint the source of outbreaks.

The legislation requires producers to assess ways in which their products could be contaminated and to take steps to prevent such problems. It also requires importers to verify the safety of all foods they bring into the country.

The result will be a fundamental shift in the FDA's approach to food safety from reacting to foodborne illness outbreaks to preventing contamination in the first place, agency Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a telephone briefing on the bill Monday that the legislation will give the FDA power for the first tiime to require proven, science-based policies that will reduce contamination of food grown and produced both in the United States and abroad.

Most food safety experts agree that the legislation will ultimately make breakfast, lunch and dinner safer for Americans.

But the most immediate impact may be higher food prices, said Craig Hedberg, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

"In the near term, we may see some of the cost of implementing this bill passed on to consumers," he said.

That may be the most tangible aspect of the legislation for most people, Hedberg said.

While the legislation will help improve safety practices, most of its work will be invisible to consumers, who likely will notice few changes in food packaging or retailing, Hedberg said.

"I think it will mostly be operating behind the scenes," Hedberg said. "And if it stays behind the scenes, that may be a good thing."

Any impacts consumers might notice are likely to be felt no sooner than three years from now, Hedburg predicted, when FDA regulators finish writing rules required by the legislation and begin implementing them.

And that is only if the FDA gets the money needed to implement the bill's many provisions from a divided Congress already set to argue over reducing the ballooning federal budget deficit.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill's provision would increase net government spending on food safety by $1.4 billion over five years.

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