Dive Summary:
- In response to an editorial piece ripping the FSMA to shreds, two members of the Center for Science in the Public Interest have defended the legislation as a good step in the right direction.
- Their main thesis, so to speak, is the calculated paradigm shift that the FSMA brings to the FDA, changing it from a reactive agency to a proactive one.
- While opponents believe the new act has the FDA overstepping their bounds, the authors retort with the almost universal support, from both companies and consumers, for the new regulations.
From the article:
Linnekin says that “big business, academia, public health, the media, and government” were a “predictable” group of supporters. Ironically, Linnekin fails to see exactly how unpredictable such a coalition was. It is highly unusual for consumer advocates and industry groups, for example, to advocate together for the passage of reform—and yet that’s exactly what happened with FSMA. Not because, as Linnekin suggests, the law’s impact will be “minimal,” but instead because all the stakeholders recognized just how badly reform was needed.
While there are many opinions on the new law and the proposed regulations, Linnekin’s attacks on the new law are too overt to pass over – it misses entirely the public health benefits that could result in three to five years from now. Consumers, and for that matter farmers and food producers of all sizes, need to celebrate passage of the Food Safety Modernization and here’s why.
