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GAINESVILLE - Each year, 5,000 people die from food borne illnesses.
With numbers like that and with recent outbreaks of salmonella contamination in peanuts, food safety has become a major concern.
Dr. Walid Alali, an Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at UGA, says because of recent food contamination outbreaks and the thousands of deaths associated with food borne illnesses, food safety regulations are undergoing a change.
"More consumers are concerned with the safety of their imported foods than locally grown foods," Alali says.
There are currently two pieces of legislation that may impact food safety on the national level. One, which has been passed in the House of Representatives, is called the Food Safety Enhancement Act. This bill would give the Food and Drug Administration more regulatory powers, more recall authority, increased inspections, and better traceability.
The Senate is also considering its own bill that will increase food safety. "They are trying to create a new administration called the Food Safety Administration. It will take all the food safety regulations from the CDC, USDA, and FDA. It will put them all in one agency," Dr. Alali explains.
In Georgia, Senate Bill 80 proposes that the Georgia Dept. of Agriculture have more regulatory powers in the state's food industry.
Perhaps with tighter restrictions, we won't see a repeat of 76 million cases of food borne illnesses yearly or billions in losses because of food contamination scares.
The food industry has an annual revenue stream of $2.25 trillion.
