The National Uniformity for Food Act provides for a single set of national food safety standards and warning requirements for packaged foods.
- What the Legislation Does & Does Not Do
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DOES
- Make food safety regulation for packaged food consistent across all fifty states and under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
- Provide consumers with a single set of consistent, science-based food safety regulations.
- Curb regulatory burdens on all businesses by setting a single set of national guidelines.
- Extend to packaged food the same consumer protections as in other areas of federal regulation including meat, poultry, nutrition labeling, and drugs and medical devices.
- Establish a procedure requiring the FDA to evaluate state regulations different than its own, and consider applying that state’s standards nationally.
DOES NOT
- Make policy regarding food safety enforcement.
- Restrict states’ enforcement powers.
- Make policy regarding sanitation, or change state authority in this area.
- Make policy regarding the handling of hazardous foods.
- Alter states’ food safety programs including inspections, analysis and dairy sampling. Require states to follow federal procedures that may be more time-consuming.
- Pre-empt existing state food safety requirements without a thorough FDA evaluation.
- Prevent states from taking enforcement action without federal action or approval, so long as state food safety laws are the same as the federal.
- Interfere with states’ rapid response mechanisms to take action in emergency.