UPDATED: House passes food safety bill

President Obama is expected to sign it into law.
The bill passed on a 215 to 144 vote. While many produce industry organizations praised aspects of the bill, they deeply opposed one part of it, the Tester Amendment, which exempts smaller producers from certain provisions of the bill.

The Newark, Del.-based Produce Marketing Association was among those that criticized the Tester Amendment because of exceptions that officials said were not based in science.

But in the wake of the bill's passage, Julia Stewart, PMA's public relations director, was focusing on the positive.

"There are a lot of things in the bill that we like, and the industry should be proud of the work we did," she said. "We should not lose sight of the importance of this occasion, and we thank everybody who helped us get to what is a landmark day."

Stewart said PMA looked forward to being an active participant in the Food and Drug Administration's implementation of the bill.

In a statement, Robert Guenther, senior vice president of public policy for the Washington, D.C.-based United Fresh Produce Association, expressed mixed feelings about the bill's passage.

"The good in this bill is still accompanied by the bad," Guenther said. "United Fresh is confident that the (act) will do much good. It is, after all, the first overhaul of the food safety system in seven decades. However, the House and the Senate have both missed an opportunity to engage with one another to remedy the loopholes created by the Tester/Hagan Amendment."

Guenther and other industry leaders have praised the bill for several provisions of the bill, including a commodity-specific implementation of preventive controls for production and processing of fruits and vegetables when deemed necessary by risk-based, scientific Food and Drug Administration analysis.

Pam Bailey, president and chief executive officer of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, praised the bill's passage.

"This places prevention at the center of all of our food safety processes," Bailey said. "It's public policy at its very best."

Echoing that sentiment was Rebecca Rimel, president and chief executive officer of the Pew Charitable Trust, who saluted legislators who crossed party lines in the public interest.

"This is a great day for Americans, one that's many decades overdue," Rimel said.