FDA Food Safety Modernization Act Addresses the Growing Concern for Food Safety
Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows- about one in every six persons i.e. about 48 million people in the US get sick, 1.2 million get hospitalized and 3000 pass away each year due to foodborne diseases. So, in spite of being the most developed country in the world, USA still combats public health issues which to a great extent are preventable.
This grim reality convinced authorities to legislate upon The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in order to bring about a substantial change in the food safety scenario. This robust legal framework improvised upon the Food Safety Law shifts focus from responding to diseases to preventing it.
The stringent law is optimistic about bringing about considerable changes to the global food scenario, raising alarm against foodborne diseases and its outcome. It is hopeful of making citizens and authorities aware that these illnesses are a grave public health issue and can prove to be a major threat to the economic structure of the food system.
The food safety law points at specific actions that shall be adopted in order to save contamination. In fact this step might assure a scenario of shared responsibility among the nodes of the global food supply chain catering to both humans and animals.
Food safety law in the US traces back to 1883 when the oldest consumer protection agency- FDA, appointed Harvey Wiley- chief chemist, for investigating adulteration of pharmaceuticals and foods.
Upton Sinclair’s novel- The Jungle, followed cue in 1905 and created an uproar by pointing out at the Chicago meat packing industry and the plight of the immigrant workers associated with it. This resulted in a significant change with the introduction of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drugs Act also referred to as Wiley Act that was passed by Theodore Roosevelt on June 30, 1906.
This law instructed the agencies to conduct inspection of meat processing businesses and prevent rolling out of adulterated food. About 20 years later, in 1930, Department of Chemistry was restructured giving rise to a separate regulatory branch termed as Food, Drug and pesticide authority, which was termed as Food and Drug administration, commonly known as FDA.
