[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5739 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5739

 To protect children from foods that pose a significant choking hazard.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 14, 2002

   Mr. Honda (for himself, Mr. Payne, Mrs. Clayton, Mr. Pallone, Mr. 
 Stark, Mr. Kennedy of Rhode Island, Ms. Lee, Mr. Conyers, Mr. Acevedo-
    Vila, Mr. Lipinski, Mrs. Christensen, Mr. Wynn, and Mr. Pombo) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                          Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To protect children from foods that pose a significant choking hazard.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Food Choking Prevention Act of 
2002''.

SEC. 2. OFFICE OF CHOKING HAZARD EVALUATION.

    (a) In General.--An Office of Choking Hazard Evaluation (referred 
to in this Act as the ``Office'') shall be established by the Food and 
Drug Administration in collaboration with the Consumer Product Safety 
Commission.
    (b) Warning Labels.--The Office shall have the authority to require 
warning labels on food products primarily consumed by children that 
pose a demonstrably high choking risk to children.
    (c) Recall Authority.--The Office shall have mandatory recall 
authority of food products that the Office determines pose a 
significant and unacceptable choking hazard to the general public.

SEC. 3. INTERAGENCY TASK FORCE.

    (a) Choking Hazard Evaluation Task Force.--A Choking Hazard 
Evaluation Task Force (referred to in this Act as the ``Task Force'') 
shall be established jointly by the Food and Drug Administration and 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The staff of the Task Force 
shall be designated jointly by such agencies.
    (b) Duties.--
            (1) In general.--The Task Force shall be responsible for 
        establishing criteria for determining whether a food product 
        poses a significant and unacceptable choking hazard.
            (2) Age-specific criteria.--In carrying out paragraph (1), 
        the Task Force shall establish age-differentiated criteria for 
        choking hazards.
            (3) Public comment.--There shall be a 90-day public comment 
        period after the criteria under paragraph (1) are announced by 
        the Task Force.

SEC. 4. DATABASE OF COMPLAINTS.

    The Food and Drug Administration shall establish a national 
database of unusual food choking incidents. The Food and Drug 
Administration shall provide for an adequate reporting system 
throughout its field offices, which members of the health care 
profession and the general public can readily access to report new 
incidents.

SEC. 5. REPORTS TO CONGRESS.

    The Food and Drug Administration shall regularly submit reports to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate 
and the Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 
Representatives regarding the implementation of this Act.
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