New food safety bill criticized

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Critics of a new food safety plan by President Bush say it would make it more difficult for U.S. regulators to enforce measures to prevent food contamination.

The Bush plan would grant the Food and Drug Administration the authority to impose preventive controls on high-risk foods "that have been associated with repeated instances of serious health problems or death to humans or animals from unintentional contamination," the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Critics of the bill, however, say it would restrict the authority of the FDA and note the new plan falls short of the demands of the food industry.

"Essentially, this provision is a requirement that people be injured or even killed before the FDA can act," committee chairman Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said.

Mike Leavitt with the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the FDA, countered the criticism, saying the U.S. food supply is one of the safest in the world.