Yesterday evening, President Obama signed into law the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, thereby enacting the first major food safety system overhaul in more than 70 years.

Congressman Dingell was an original author of the food safety legislation, and he worked long and hard during the bill’s tenuous journey through Congress to see it through to passage.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is a giant leap forward for our food safety system. It will give the Food and Drug Administration much needed tools to oversee our food system, track down dangerous illness-causing pathogens and respond quickly to food borne illness outbreaks through mandatory recall authority and authority to detain tainted products.

What is more, the law will bring about a focus on prevention and shared responsibility between the FDA and food manufacturers. It will protect employees who uncover food safety violations.  It will put to use available technology to better prevent food borne illnesses from taking hold and spreading in the first place.  It will also implement safety standards for imported food, thereby ensuring that foreign food processors who want to sell to us are held to equally high standards of safe food.  The Food Safety law will implement all these measures and more, thereby bringing our food safety system into the 21st century, and keeping Americans safe.

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act serves a necessary and admirable purpose—it will enable American consumers to rest assured that the food we eat is safe. The many recalls that have confronted American consumers over the years—peanuts, melamine in milk, spinach, eggs—has called into question the safety of our food supply and the ability of the government to adequately protect consumers.  The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act addresses this concern and gives the FDA the tools it needs to effectively do its job and protect American families.

Congressman Dingell is thrilled that his hard fought battle for safer food is now a victory for the American people.

For more information on the Food Safety Modernization Act, click here.