Senate passes sweeping food safety bill
The Senate on Tuesday approved the biggest overhaul to the nation’s food safety laws since the 1930s, voting 73 to 25 to give vast new authorities to the Food and Drug Administration; place new responsibilities on farmers and food companies to prevent contamination; and—for the first time—set safety standards for imported foods, a growing part of the American diet.
The legislation follows a spate of national outbreaks of food poisoning involving products as varied as eggs, peanuts and spinach in which thousands of people were sickened and more than a dozen died.
The measure passed with support from both Democrats and Republicans, one of the few pieces of legislation to bridge differences in an otherwise sharply divided body. The House approved a different, more stringent version of the bill more than a year ago.