Opinions

# results: 16-30 of 156
Show items per page
Date Opinions Topic
Jun 10, 2013

''For Our Kids' Sake, Food Safety Must Be a Priority''

As a pediatrician, my No. 1 concern is to keep children safe and healthy. Inside the walls of my office, I can provide services and counseling to help do just that, whether by giving an infant her first childhood vaccine, providing a mental health screening to an adolescent patient or counseling parents about how to keep their homes as safe as possible. Unfortunately, there are some threats to children's health that are beyond my control, including the food they consume.

More

Food Safety
Apr 8, 2013

''Pew Report Shows Flaw in Tracing Food-Safety Lapses

"Twenty-two weeks. That’s how long it took federal health officials to determine the contaminated food source after the first person was infected in a 2011 outbreak of salmonella that swept across 34 states, sickened 136 people and led to one of the largest national recalls of ground turkey."

More

Food Safety
Mar 26, 2013

Mr. President: Make Imported Food Safe

The Obama administration has taken an important step by releasing the draft rules central to implementing the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), but it must do more. Important draft regulations focused on the safety of imported foods are still awaiting release. These rules are especially important since about two-thirds of fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed in the United States come from abroad.

More

Food Safety
Mar 11, 2013

''FDA Must Ensure Safety of Imported Food''

"Several months ago, my life was changed forever when I fell severely ill after eating imported ricotta cheese contaminated by the dangerous bacteria Listeria. Protections in a new U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) law could help prevent infections, like mine, from harming other Americans. But they need to be fully implemented to help anyone."

More

Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Improving Food Safety Essential''

"The announcement earlier this month of proposed federal food safety regulations certainly took long enough — the authorizing legislation, the Food Safety Modernization Act, was passed two years ago with bipartisan support. Between then and now, the nation has seen a number of incidents (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified 15 multistate outbreaks) in which thousands of people took ill, even died, because of illness carried in contaminated food."

More

Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Time to Move on New Food Rules''

"America hasn't made major changes to its food-safety laws since the 1930s, so it probably should come as no surprise that - once a decision was finally made to update them - it took two more years to generate new regulations. But the Food and Drug Administration's menu for reform is now mostly assembled, and that's welcome news. For decades, federal regulators have reacted to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses rather than working aggressively to prevent them."

More

Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''Editorial: An Unconscionable Delay''

"After two frustrating years of delay, the U.S. Food and Drug administration should soon have the power to prevent food-borne outbreaks rather than merely reacting to them."

More

Food Safety
Jan 16, 2013

''FDA: Plain Sense is the Key for New Food Safety Guidelines''

"The new food safety guidelines proposed for the people who supply the nation's food, including farmers and manufacturers, are a good preventative step toward a healthy America."

More

Food Safety
Jan 11, 2013

Editorial: ''New FDA Food Safety Rules Are a Huge Step Forward''

"At long last, after seven frustrating and sometimes deadly decades of inaction, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has the power it needs to recall tainted foods and require common-sense safety measures for farmers and food manufacturers. But the new food safety rules announced last week won't do much good if there's no money to enforce them, and therein lies the rub."

More

Food Safety
Jan 10, 2013

''Editorial: Late Better Than Never for New Food-Safety Rules''

"The Food and Drug Administration has proposed the most sweeping changes in food-safety rules in decades. The changes being made under the Food Safety Modernization Act, which became law in 2011, are long overdue and should be implemented as soon as possible."

More

Food Safety
Jan 7, 2013

''Safer Food Is on Its Way''

On Friday, the new law moved a step closer to reality with the FDA’s announcement of proposed rules in two major areas: produce safety and food processing. The new rules will, if adopted, set standards for equipment, tools, buildings, water, soil and other sources of possible contamination.

More

Food Safety
Dec 22, 2012

''Prevention Matters More Than Peanuts''

An opinion editorial by Sandra Eskin, director of the Food Safety Campaign at the Pew Health Group, about the Food Safety Modernization Act and prevention of foodborne illness.

More

Food Safety
Dec 4, 2012

''Looking for More Food Regulation Success''

"All Americans, even those who rail about government’s regulatory overreach, would agree it’s critical to keep our food supply safe. That’s why it’s heartening that the Food and Drug Administration for the first time took action to shut down a peanut butter plant in New Mexico after it failed to clean up its act. At least 41 people nationwide have been sickened by the salmonella-tainted organic peanut butter."

More

Food Safety
Nov 29, 2012

''Safe Peanut Butter, And Beyond''

"Citing the conditions at Sunland as well as its history of health violations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration put at least a temporary hold on those plans Monday, suspending operations at the plant and exercising for the first time its new authority to shut down potentially dangerous food facilities. Luckily for consumers, this was made possible by the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law nearly two years ago — and long overdue even then. But other, much more sweeping changes required by the law haven't yet been implemented."

More

Food Safety
Nov 26, 2012

''Editorial: White House Dallies on Food-Safety Law''

''The Obama administration continues to drag its feet on a landmark consumer-protection law that could have made this week's Thanksgiving feast, leftovers and snacks considerably safer to eat.''

More

Food Safety