Senate bill would set uniform national food labeling, safety standards.

Three senators have introduced controversial legislation that would provide for nationally uniform food safety standards and warning labels on packaged foods by establishing FDA as the final authority on these matters, an action that would result in state governments losing some of those powers. The measure (S 3128), sponsored by Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), is companion legislation to a measure (HR 4167) approved 283-139 last March by the House.

Under provisions of NAFTA, a common market for sweeteners will exist between the United States and Mexico beginning Jan. 1, 2008.

According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which supports the legislation, the Senate bill "ensures the same level of protection for consumers no matter where they live, places our nation's food safety in the hands of the world's leading experts at [FDA], and preserves the appropriate role for states and the federal government when it comes to food safety."

When HR 4167 was under consideration by the House, the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture opposed the measure, saying in a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee that NASDA members "are very concerned that this bill goes far beyond its stated purpose of providing uniform food safety warning notification requirements and expands federal preemption under the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act." NASDA said such additional preemptions "would seriously compromise states' ability to enact laws and issue rules in numerous areas of food safety." Specifically, said NASDA, "we believe the bill as currently written threatens existing state food safety programs and jeopardizes state/federal food safety cooperative programs such as those related to Grade A milk, retail food protection and shellfish sanitation." In addition, attorneys general from 37 states earlier wrote to members of Congress to express their opposition to the House bill. In their letter, the AGs point out that "Food safety has been largely a matter of state law and oversight for more than a century," and that about 80 percent of all U.S. food safety enforcement currently is conducted at the local and state levels.

According to the National Uniformity for Food Coalition, since each of the 50 states currently has the ability to require its own warning labels separate and apart from FDA requirements, it results in a "multi-tiered regulatory environment [that] is highly inefficient, and serves to confuse, rather than educate, consumers." Further, says the coalition, the measure would preserve "the appropriate roles for both the state and federal government."

The coalition notes that the bill provides a process for states to petition FDA to review and consider adopting their unique state standard as a national standard. States also can request an exemption based on special state needs. Finally, says the coalition, to ensure that current state requirements that are not consistent with federal standards are given appropriate consideration, all these state measures would remain in effect until FDA takes action on a state's petition.