Food safety newsbites from two sides of the regulatory fence

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

First, the consumer side. Who wants stronger food safety rules? Americans. That’s the take from a new poll of likely voters released Tuesday by the Pew Health Group. Nine in 10, according to this poll, would be just fine with the federal government ratcheting up its food safety efforts.

Here’s the organization’s synopsis of those results. And the full report.

Imported foods seem to be a source of particular concern. Melamine, anyone?

Now from the regulators’ side. Also today, the Food and Drug Administration showed off its new food registry -- you know, the one that manufacturers and facilities are supposed to use to say, ‘Um, we might have a bit of a contamination problem in that recent batch of peanut butter.’ Or cheese. Or spices. Or cookie dough.

The goal, or hope, is that the registry will speed up the government’s ability to get ahead of such things. Here’s the quick take from the Wall Street Journal. And the Reportable Food Registry itself.

-- Tami Dennis