Sec. 2. Findings; purposes
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Congress finds that— the safety of the food supply of the United States is vital to the public health, to public confidence in the food supply, and to the success of the food sector of the Nation’s economy; lapses in the protection of the food supply and loss of public confidence in food safety are damaging to consumers and the food industry, and place a burden on interstate commerce; the safety and security of the food supply requires an integrated, systemwide approach to preventing foodborne illness, a thorough and broad-based approach to basic and applied research, and intensive, effective, and efficient management of the Nation’s food safety program; the task of preserving the safety of the food supply of the United States faces tremendous pressures with regard to— emerging pathogens and other contaminants and the ability to detect all forms of contamination; an aging and immune-compromised population, with a growing number of people at high risk for foodborne illnesses, including infants and children; a concern regarding food fraud for economic gain, especially with mislabeling and intentionally misleading claims; an increasing volume of imported food, without adequate monitoring and inspection; and maintenance of rigorous inspection of the domestic food processing and food service industries;
Federal food safety standard setting, inspection, enforcement, and research efforts should be based on the best available science and public health considerations and food safety resources should be systematically deployed in ways that most effectively prevent foodborne illness; the Federal food safety system is fragmented, with at least 15 Federal agencies sharing responsibility for food safety, and operates under laws that do not reflect current conditions in the food system or current scientific knowledge about the cause and prevention of foodborne illness; the fragmented Federal food safety system and outdated laws preclude an integrated, systemwide approach to preventing foodborne illness, to the effective and efficient operation of the Nation’s food safety program, and to the most beneficial deployment of food safety resources; the National Academy of Sciences recommended in the report Ensuring Safe Food from Production to Consumption that Congress establish by statute a unified and central framework for managing Federal food safety programs, and recommended modifying Federal statutes so that inspection, enforcement, and research efforts are based on scientifically supportable assessments of risks to public health; and the lack of a single focal point for food safety leadership in the United States undercuts the ability of the United States to exert food safety leadership internationally, which is detrimental to the public health and the international trade interests of the United States.
The purposes of this Act are— to establish a single agency to be known as the Food Safety Administration to— regulate food safety and related labeling to strengthen the protection of the public health; ensure that food facilities fulfill their responsibility to produce food in a manner that protects the public health of all people in the United States; lead an integrated, systemwide approach to food safety and to make more effective and efficient use of resources to prevent foodborne illness; provide a single focal point for food safety leadership, both nationally and internationally; and provide an integrated food safety research capability, utilizing internally generated, scientifically and statistically valid studies or other food safety initiatives, in cooperation with academic institutions, food safety nonprofit organizations, and other scientific entities of the Federal and State governments, to achieve the continuous improvement of research on foodborne illness and contaminants; to transfer to the Food Safety Administration the food safety, labeling, inspection, and enforcement functions that, as of the day before the date of enactment of this Act, are performed by other Federal agencies; and to modernize and strengthen the Federal food safety laws to achieve more effective application and efficient management of the laws for the protection and improvement of public health.