As this Washington Post article explains, in Janaury 2011 President Obama signed into law "a landmark food safety bill that empowers the Food and Drug Administration to prevent food-borne illnesses instead of simply reacting to them. Its provisions require produce farmers, food-processing facilities and animal-food plants to adopt strategies that would help them spot and combat food-safety hazards. It also mandates that food imported into this country meet the same safety standards as food produced domestically."
But the law is yet to be implemented. Why? Because regulations promulgated by the Food and Drug Administration -- supported by both food safety advocates and major players in the food industry -- are stalled at the Administration's Office and Management & Budget (OMB). The article discusses speculation that OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is holding things up because it hasn't yet decided whether the benefits of the law outweigh its costs:
Rena Steinzor, president of the Center for Progressive Reform, said OIRA routinely second-guesses regulators and delays regulation. But usually the delays come at the behest of industry, she said.With the food-safety rules, one explanation could be that the proposals have run into private objections from a company or other party that would be affected by them, Steinzor said. But FDA officials said they’ve held hundreds of meetings with affected parties and see no sign of such resistance. Another possible explanation, Steinzor said, is OIRA’s own caution. “The economists at OIRA, who have their own ideas, may be objecting,” she said. “They are a breed unto themselves. They’re very hostile to the idea of regulation and they always have been, no matter which administration.”