Wheat growers are committed to ensuring that the U.S. food supply remains the safest, most affordable and most abundant in the world.

A number of scares in recent years in products ranging from pet food to favorite fruits and vegetables have caused many in the public and in Congress to call for a revamp of our nation’s food safety system. NAWG has been deeply engaged in these discussions to ensure any new or amended regulation of the food system makes sense for farm operators and will have a legitimate impact of the safety of our food supply.

New Food Safety Legislation

On Jan. 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The final law closely mirrored the Senate version of the bill, which was preferred by the National Association of Wheat Growers and other agricultural groups (summary of that bill here). The regulations in the bill are primarily focused on requiring facilities that must register with Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 to adopt preventative food safety programs. Farms are exempt from having to register.

The bill requires FDA to issue regulations on the sanitary transportation of food no later than 18 months after the date of enactment. FDA had already begun the process of developing these regulations, which could cover the transportation of grain from the farm to the first point of delivery.

The bill does set in motion new requirements for food product tracing. However, as farms are not food facilities they are not expected to create or maintain new records. During an active investigation of a food borne illness outbreak, farms may be asked to identify potential immediate recipients of food.

The FDA is prohibited from implementing product-tracing requirements that would alter the normal practice of commingling of grains and grain products.

Wheat Food Safety

The food safety risk posed by raw grains and milled cereal grains is extremely low. Almost all milled products are subject to a kill step such as baking, frying or cooking before being consumed. Unlike fruit or vegetables, raw grain or flours are not considered ready-to-eat products.

More information on this topic from the North American Millers’ Association is available here.

Information for Consumers

USDA and other agencies have created a food safety online hub for consumers, available online at http://foodsafety.gov/. This Web site provides a variety of information about what is being done by the government and industry to keep food safe and about what consumers should do to ensure they are handling food properly.