Food Safety Enhancement Act

This bill proposes greater FDA regulatory powers over the national food supply and food providers, namely requiring it to inspect high risk food processors every 6-12 months (it currently averages once a decade), granting it the authority to regulate how produce is raised and harvested, to order recalls of tainted food, to quarantine food suspected of contamination in a geographic area, to make warrantless searches of business records, and to establish a national food tracing system. Concurrently, the bill would impose annual registration fees of $500 on all facilities holding, processing, or manufacturing food. The bill also requires companies that find contaminants in their products to notify FDA. The bill is an enhancement to H.R.759, and to a lesser extent, H.R. 857, previously proposed food safety bills in the 111th Congress. It is also co-sponsored by the same Representatives as the latter two bills, although new to the line of support is Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce committee.