U.S. Senate Advances Food Safety Legislation

By Ricardo Carvajal –

By a vote of 73 to 25 (see the roll call here), the Senate has passed S. 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act.  As we noted in a prior posting, the Senate HELP Committee released a compromise agreement in August that would impose numerous new requirements on industry, and bestow numerous new authorities on FDA.  The version of the legislation passed by the Senate retains the major elements of the compromise agreement.  Given that the House of Representatives passed a similar bill last year, the stage is now set for a vote on, and possible enactment of, the Senate bill (perhaps within the next week).