[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 77 (Wednesday, May 26, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Page S6045]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        IMPORTED FOOD SAFETY ACT

  Mr. FRIST. Mr. President, I rise to join with Senator Collins in 
introducing S. 1123, the Imported Food Safety Act of 1999. This 
legislation will address a growing problem that affects everyone in 
this nation, the safety of the food that we eat.
  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates as many as 
9,100 deaths are attributed to foodborne illness each year in the 
United States. In addition there are tens of millions of cases of 
foodborne illness that occur, the majority of which go unreported due 
to the fact that they are not severe enough to warrant medical 
attention.
  The legislation that Senator Collins and I have crafted will target 
one of the most critical areas in helping to provide Americans with the 
safest food possible--the safety of imported food. The CDC has 
recognized that as trade and economic development increases, the 
globalization of food supplies is likely to have an increasing impact 
on foodborne illnesses.
  Currently, one-half of all the seafood and one-third of all the fresh 
fruit consumed in the U.S. comes from overseas. In fact, since the 
1980's food imports to the U.S. have doubled, but federal inspections 
by Food and Drug Administration have dropped by 50 percent.
  Over the years there have been foodborne pathogen outbreaks involving 
raspberries from Guatemala, strawberries from Mexico, scallions, 
parsley and cantaloupes from Mexico, carrots from Peru, coconut milk 
from Thailand, canned mushrooms from China and others. These outbreaks 
have serious consequences. The Mexican frozen strawberries I have just 
noted were distributed in the school lunch programs in several states, 
including my home state of Tennessee, were attributed to causing an 
outbreak of Hepatitis A in March of 1997.
  The Collins-Frist bill will do several vital things to safeguard 
against potentially dangerous imported food. The bill would allow the 
U.S. Customs Service, using a system established by FDA, to deny entry 
of imported food that has been associated with repeated and separate 
events of foodborne disease.
  The bill would also allow the FDA to require food being imported by 
entities with a history of import violations to be held in a secure 
storage facility pending FDA approval and Customs release.
  To improve the surveillance of imported food, we authorize CDC to 
enter into cooperative agreements and provide technical assistance to 
the States to conduct additional surveillance and studies to address 
critical questions for the prevention and control of foodborne diseases 
associated with imported food, and authorize CDC to conduct applied 
research to develop new or improved diagnostic tests for emerging 
foodborne pathogens in human specimens, food, and relevant 
environmental samples.
  These are just a few of the many provisions in this bill that will 
help improve the quality and safety of the imported food that we 
consume every day. I applaud the leadership of my colleague, Senator 
Collins, who as Chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations held 4 comprehensive hearings last year on the issue of 
food safety. As Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Public Health, I 
look forward to working with Senator Collins and the rest of my 
colleagues on the issue of food safety and our overall efforts in 
improving our Nation's public health infrastructure. We must continue 
to fight infectious diseases and ensure that this legislation is 
enacted to help protect our citizens and provide them with the 
healthiest food possible.

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