New produce safety rules unveiled

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Obama administration wants you to eat your fruits and vegetables. They also want the produce to be safe.

Long-awaited rules announced by the Food and Drug Administration Friday are designed to help prevent large-scale, deadly outbreaks of foodborne illness such as those linked to fresh spinach, cantaloupes, cucumbers and other foods over the past decade. That means making sure workers are trained to wash their hands, irrigation water is monitored for harmful bacteria and animals do not leave droppings in fields.

The rules will phase in over the next several years and give the FDA sweeping new oversight over how food is grown on farms.

The majority of farmers and food manufacturers already follow good safety practices, but the rules are intended to give greater focus on prevention in a system that has been largely reactive after large outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people – or 1 in 6 people in the United States – are sickened each year from foodborne diseases, and an estimated 3,000 people die.

The Obama administration has said it doesn’t want people to eat fewer fruits and vegetables because of safety concerns.