food safety

The California Senate passed a bill earlier this month that would require all restaurant employees to be trained and certified in safe food-handling practices. If signed into law, the bill could eventually affect the restaurant industry nationwide.

Senate Bill 602 comes from Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), who also crafted a 2008 law requiring California restaurant chains with 20 or more locations to post calorie information on their menus and indoor menuboards. The most recent bill awaits Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature to become law, something the California Restaurant Association says might not happen.

The bill passed the senate on a bipartisan vote of 30-1. It “seeks to reduce the incidence of food-borne illnesses and hospitalizations in California by educating restaurant employees about proper food handling,” according to a press release issued by Sen. Padilla.

The bill would require employees to get a certified food-handler card within 30 days of being hired. The card would be valid across the state and expire after three years. To ease the process, the bill requires at least one accredited food-safety-certification exam to be offered online.

The bill is modeled after similar programs in San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernadino counties, which, the Padilla press release says, have reported a 79 percent reduction in food-borne-illness outbreaks since implementation.

San Diego County’s program started in the 1980s in response to a major Hepatitis A outbreak in a food facility, says Liz Pozzebon, assistant director of the county’s Department of Environmental Health. While she can’t verify the 79 percent reduction cited by Sen. Padilla, she says the program is a “very positive component in reducing major food-safety violations.”

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With Congress set to tackle financial reform, the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act, an attempt to overhaul the nation’s food-safety system after recent outbreaks of E. coli, Salmonella, and other pathogens, has once again been pushed down the legislative agenda.

In amending the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, the Modernization Act would increase the FDA’s ability to monitor the nation’s food supply and to take stronger action when safety issues arise.

Specifically, the act authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to suspend the registration of food facilities, assess and collect fees related to recalls and reinspections, and order immediate recalls of tainted food—a power the industry has long called for. It also empowers the Secretary to track and trace raw agricultural commodities and increases regulation of foreign imports.

The restaurant industry largely favors the bill, as restaurants often shoulder much of the blame and bad publicity when outbreaks do occur.

A bill similar to the Modernization Act passed the House last year on July 30, with President Obama calling it a “major step forward in modernizing our food-safety system.” Forward progress came to a halt in the Senate, however, when the battle over health-care reform took over Capitol Hill.Read more