Pew and Partners Call for Food Safety Funding

On Oct. 26, numerous public health leaders and consumer advocates sent letters to appropriators in the Senate and House of Representatives, calling on them to fully fund the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) as they make their final decisions on the fiscal 2015 budget.

As rules implementing the law are finalized and released, The Pew Charitable Trusts joins 20 public health organizations and nine consumer advocacy groups to request that Congress provide the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with the funding it needs to implement and enforce this landmark food safety legislation.

FSMA shifts FDA’s focus from reaction to prevention—and represents the first meaningful update to U.S. food safety oversight in more than 50 years.

Among the public health representatives and consumer groups that signed the letters are the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the American Gastroenterological Association, the Consumer Federation of America, the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, and the Environmental Defense Fund.

Read the text of the letters from public health groups and consumer advocates.