Dive Brief:
- Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) introduced a bill last month that would amend existing law to mandate waivers for schools that want to include imported foods in their lunch programs, Food Safety News reported.
- Garamendi introduced the bill in response to the hepatitis A outbreak that regulators linked to frozen strawberries from Egypt, which sickened 134 people at schools and restaurants.
- Per the "Buy American" language in current legislation, school food authorities taking part in the National School Lunch Program must purchase domestically grown and processed foods "to the maximum extent possible," according to Food Safety News.
Dive Insight:
A key issue for manufacturers is how this bill could impact companies that manufacture their products at foreign facilities or source their ingredients from farmers in other countries. Outsourcing food production labor has been a social issue for some time, with opponents lamenting American job losses due to manufacturers opening up or investing in facilities in other countries.
This time around, the focus is on safety, and the FSMA rule concerning foreign suppliers will undoubtedly come into play here once the official implementation deadline arrives.
It's important to note that this bill wouldn't necessarily ban foreign foods from school lunches, but would instead attach more red tape to including them. Sometimes more regulations can inspire change, but if enough manufacturers vocally oppose this bill, the industry may not face this legislation's challenges.