Fall is only a few short weeks away and then we will start to see an avalanche of political advertisements as federal, state, and local candidates vie for your attention and votes. However, while the law-making wheels continue to turn within the current 118th Congress on Capitol Hill, Congress is only in session for about 35 more days until the end of 2024. That is not a lot of time to address critical pending legislative issues.
On tap for the remainder of this year in Congress are critical issues such as the farm bill, immigration policy, securing the borders, railway safety, tax law, on-line technology oversight, and passage of a stopgap funding measure to avoid a partial government shutdown when the new fiscal year begins October 1. There are many other issues too but when one considers how much time is left until 2025 and the start of the 119th Congress, we wager that not much business will take place in our divided Congress before the start of the new year. That is the norm especially in an election year. Do not anticipate miracles as Congress has only enacted 78 public laws thus far this year and that number is embarrassingly low as compared to prior Congressional sessions. We can only hope that the infighting and election-year politics will take a back seat to these important issues next year. And what a year 2025 is forecast to be. Will Democrats win a majority to flip control of the House, and will the Republicans flip control of the Senate? We will know in less than eight weeks as election day nears. Excitement is building as there are lots of very tight races! Oh, how could I forget the most important race? The presidency! Smile!
FTC To Launch Inquiry Into High Food Prices
The latest news on this issue is that on August 1, Lina Khan, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), officially announced that her agency will be looking into grocery costs and retailers’ financial performances. And not to be outdone, Vice President Kamala Harris said on August 15 at a press conference in Bowie, MD, with President Biden at her side, that she plans to address price gouging by investigating high food prices. All this clamor started when President Biden promised several months ago to crack down on price gouging and what he called “shrinkflation” (when product prices go up and net weight package contents go down). So, it appears as if Harris has picked up the mantra. All I can say, folks, is that manipulating the free market through government price controls is something that has a clear, historical record of never working. For some of my older peers, how can we forget President Richard Nixon’s failed price controls program followed by President Gerald Ford’s WIN campaign (Whip Inflation Now) that also flopped? Been there, done that! While I would not panic about these threats to our food industry, remember that it is election time and what gets more press and the public’s support than promises to voters that you will lower food prices?
So, aside from campaign promises, the retail food industry still must contend with Khan’s plans. She recently said, “I’ll be asking the commission to join me in launching an inquiry into grocery prices to shed light on why it is that prices and profits remain so high, even as costs appear to come down.” We at Policy Solutions are not sure where all this is heading at this stage in the game, but Khan is no friend of the food industry as the FTC chair has already put grocers in her crosshairs with the launch of a multi-state lawsuit to block the $24 billion Kroger, Albertsons merger. As for me, and depending on who wins the presidency, I’m wagering that there may eventually be FTC hearings held on the Hill followed by the printing of a formal oversight document which will then gather dust. Stay tuned.
Chemicals in Food
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is holding a major public meeting at the end of this month on what they say will lead to the development of an enhanced systematic process for FDA’s post-market assessment of chemicals in food. The purpose of the upcoming September 25 meeting is to also hear from interested parties especially from the food industry. The agency will be looking at ingredients considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS), food additives, color additives, food contact substances, and contaminants. The meeting is in-person and virtual attendance will also be available. Go to: www.fda.gov for more information or call 888-SAFEFOOD (toll free). Your food safety experts may find this meeting of interest.
Making Chicken And Turkey Safer To Eat
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has released draft language for the agency’s newly proposed rule that would make it illegal to sell “raw chicken carcasses, chicken parts, comminuted chicken, and comminuted turkey products contaminated with certain salmonella levels.” This latest step by USDA/FSIS is part of a three-year effort to combat the spread of salmonella. Would you believe that 48 million people became sick from foodborne illnesses last year?
The whopping several hundred-page draft rule is now part of a much broader effort under the authority of USDA to cut the risk of Salmonella-borne illnesses in the U.S. which is increasing significantly. Once the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register, all interested parties will have two months to comment before the rule is finalized. For more information, go to regulations.gov. The docket number is FSIS-2023-0028.
A Single Federal Food Safety Agency
Establishing a new single federal food safety bureaucracy has been discussed before on Capitol Hill but has never received much traction. Well, there is a renewed effort now underway to establish a single agency for food safety and nutritional policy. This latest move to establish a single federal food safety agency comes from democrat Congress members Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) who have introduced a bill called the Federal Food Administration Act to create a new food safety agency.
Currently there are quite a few agencies primarily within USDA and within FDA that oversee food and food safety. However, would you believe that food safety issues get oversight from many other agencies including staff at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Homeland Security, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Food and Nutrition Service, the Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Treasury Department, the Department of Transportation, the National Marine Fisheries Service, and several more. By now, you get the picture as to why Durbin and DeLauro think the time has come to create a single agency to oversee food issues.
According to Food Safety News, the Federal Food Administration Act would take food regulation out of the Food and Drug Administration and establish a Federal Food Administration under the Department of Health and Human Services by incorporating the existing food programs within FDA. Although as I have reported in the past, FDA has most recently undergone a major reorganization to include the new Human Foods Program (HFP) to increase their oversight of food and food safety issues. However, with so many federal departments and agencies involved one way or another with food safety issues, we at Policy Solutions think more needs to be done to bring all this oversight together and Durbin and DeRosa think a single, new agency is the way to go. We shall see as the new comprehensive HFP is slated to formally launch next month on October 1. The question is will that be enough to satisfy those who are pursuing the concept of a new single agency to oversee food issues?
Voluntary Sodium Reductions
The FDA is urging food manufacturers to reduce sodium levels in packaged and processed food products by around 20 percent to reduce health risks caused by excessive salt intake. The new guidance recommendations are just that – recommendations – and will not be enforced by the FDA. The new target for sodium reduction in foods builds on the voluntary sodium reduction goals issued in 2021, now referred to as Phase I, to thus further reduce diet-related diseases associated with consuming elevated levels of sodium.
Reducing sodium in products sounds like a promising idea to promote better health but like many Capitol Hill issues, there are always some naysayers. Thus, some argue that similar efforts under the Obama administration were burdensome for producers who relied and still do on using sodium for taste, texture and even food safety.
How To Sell Food Safety
Because we all care about selling food that is safe and wholesome, I think you may be interested to know about a new book entitled “How to Sell Food Safety: The 3 ½ steps That Will Massively Increase Your Chances of Being Heard,” written by food safety expert Nuno F. Soares. It is available for purchase now at howtosellfoodsafety.com.
Bill Marler a leading food safety advocate, attorney, and publisher of Food Safety News, writes in the preface, “I cannot count the times that food safety professionals have asked me how to get the c-suite to engage in food safety before a foodborne illness outbreak happens – devastating hundreds of consumer and possibly crippling the company.” Nuno’s book has the answers.
Barry Scher is associated with the public policy firm of Policy Solutions LLC and can be reached at Bscher@policy-solutions.net.
