Shurtleff opposes food-safety bill

WASHINGTON — Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff joined eight other attorneys general Tuesday in opposing a food safety bill that the U.S. House of Representatives will take up today.

The National Uniformity for Food Act of 2005 has 225 co-sponsors, including Utah's three House members, but 39 attorneys general and the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture have criticized the bill.

Citing conclusions drawn by a Congressional Budget Office analysis, the attorneys general say that if passed, the bill would pre-empt about 200 state food safety and labeling laws, as well as 40 state proposals still in the works.

Utah is one of 16 states that have laws regulating food additives that pose health risks. The state also has laws on milk and restaurant safety and regulations for safe honey production that could be affected by the bill.

"It's about truth and it's about federalism," Shurtleff said at a press conference of the National Associations of Attorneys General in Washington Tuesday. "To the federal government: Keep your hands out of our honey jar and let us do our jobs."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which did an analysis of the bill, say the Utah laws and other states' rules for unsafe food and color additives are more protective of human health that what the Food and Drug Administration has in place. This would be lost if the bill passed in its current form, unless a state petitioned to keep its laws and rules in place, the report said.

Shurtleff said the federal bill's language is vague and its exact effects are unclear. He added that lawmakers do not know the full implications of the bill because it has not yet been subject to hearings or real debate.

But Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said having 50 different state food labeling and safety rules for companies to obey is unfair to those who want to distribute their products nationally. "It is not a practical solution," Matheson said, given "how our economy works."

It is also not fair to say the FDA could not come up with appropriate standards to satisfy what the law might change, he added.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, supports the bill because states will be able to petition the FDA to keep their own rules alive if they choose, said Scott Parker, Bishop's Chief of Staff. Matheson and Bishop are co-sponsors of the bill, as is Rep. Chris Cannon , R-Utah.

The Grocery Manufacturers of America also supports the bill, saying the measure would provide "consistent, science-based food safety standards and warning requirements."