Problems With Georgia's New Food Safety Law

After recent food safety scares involving tainted pistachios from California, contaminated spinach from Wisconsin and infected peanuts from Georgia, it seems as though everyone is becoming more concerned with ensuring that what we eat doesn’t make us sick.

This commitment, as well as the recent embarrassment associated with the massive peanut recall at the Blakely, Georgia-based plant of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), is likely the rational behind the new food safety bill (S.B. 80) (pdf) that Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed this past week.

Among other provisions, the new bill establishes food safety regulations that will:

“require hundreds of food processors to alert state inspectors if internal tests show their products are tainted within 24 hours. It also gives Georgia agriculture officials the power to order the manufacturer to conduct more tests.”

While it seems logical to require food processors to report suspected cases of food-borne illnesses in their plants, prior to the passage of this bill, companies in Georgia were not required to do so.

PCA’s case is a prime example of this lack of oversight, as the company knew about possible salmonella contamination prior to the information being released to health officials or the public.

The new food safety bill in Georgia is being hailed by many as an important step toward tightening the state’s food safety laws.  But how much does this bill really change the status quo for food safety in the state?

While the new regulations do require more stringent testing of food products before they hit the market and allows state officials to request additional testing at the producers’ expense, mandatory testing for all food products is still not required.

In fact, if a food processing plant decides to submit its own written food safety plan detailing health standards, testing procedures and contamination protocols under the new legislation, this plan is considered in compliance with the supposedly enhanced food safety guidelines and is accepted by the state "in lieu of complying with a test regimen established by rules or regulations promulgated by the Commissioner [of Agriculture]."

Some are contending that the new rules will actually push food processing corporations to test less out of fear of having to disclose test results that show a possible contamination.

And as far as the voluntary food safety plans go, food poisoning attorney Bill Marler notes that PCA had one of these plans in effect prior to its peanut debacle and still managed to ship out thousands of pounds of salmonella tainted products across the country.

The safety of our food supply is far too contingent upon the notion that corporations will always act in the best interest of public health.  Instead of letting companies write their own food safety plans, state and federal government entities need to coordinate and develop a uniform set of safety and testing standards that all companies must follow.

Georgia’s new food safety bill does improve upon the almost non-existent safety standards in the state previously, but have you ever heard of putting a band-aid on a broken leg?

(As a minor side note, Bill Marler has offered to donate $2,500 to the Washington, DC homeless support center Miriam’s Kitchen if he gets 2,500 more Twitter followers. Obama Foodorama has offered to match this donation if he reaches his goal. Follow him here, and raise some money for a very worthy organization!)

(Photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com on Flickr)