Washington, DC - Congressman John D. Dingell (D-MI15) made the following opening statement this morning at the Committee on Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing titled “The Salmonella Outbreak: The Role of Industry in Protecting the Nation’s Food Supply”:

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing on the dreadful lapses in accountability by federal and state regulators, as well as members of industry, in ensuring the safety of the Nation’s food supply.  As I made clear last month during the Subcommittee’s previous hearing on this matter, this is not a new problem.  Indeed, during the 110th Congress, this Subcommittee conducted nine hearings about the myriad faults in the regulatory system designed to protect Americans from dangerous foods and drugs.  At the cost of sickening nearly 700 people, probably killing nine, costing the state of Michigan alone one million dollars to combat, and depriving other businesses of revenue due to recalls, the most recent outbreak of salmonella as a result of deplorably poor sanitary conditions at Peanut Corporation of America’s (PCA) Georgia and Texas plants further illustrates that an overhaul of the Nation’s food safety system is long overdue.

“While last month’s hearing dealt with the federal and state regulatory faults that contributed in large part to the peanut butter-related salmonella outbreak, what concerns us today is the role industry should play in protecting the health and safety of American consumers.  I am aware that Nestle, for example, refused to contract PCA as a supplier due to its discovery of unsanitary conditions in PCA’s processing facilities.  All the same, I understand that such diligence is not uniform across the food industry.  I intend to ask our witnesses frank questions about their operational protocols related to ensuring the safety of products supplied to them for final processing.  In particular, I seek to learn what best practices they have in place for protecting consumer health and safety, as well as how and if they monitor the sanitary conditions in their suppliers’ processing facilities.  Finally, I wish to ask the witnesses assembled here today to state for the record if they support increased and strengthened authorities for the Food and Drug Administration to prevent further catastrophes such as the one caused by PCA.

“Mr. Chairman, you, Chairman Pallone, and I have introduced H.R. 759, the “Food and Drug Administration Globalization Act of 2009,” which will guarantee a reliable stream of resources through registration fees on food manufacturers to support increased inspections of foreign and domestic processing plants by FDA.  This bill is predicated on the notion that FDA must be strengthened, not replaced by a new food safety agency, whose new layers of bureaucracy will likely come at great cost to taxpayers.  It is my hope that the witnesses here today will recognize the urgency of enacting H.R. 759 and offer their support for it.  Our sensible bill will better protect American consumers, indeed from farm to fork.

“Thank you, and I yield back the balance of my time.”

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