Hello, Motherhood community! I'm so glad to begin this dialogue with you about an issue I care so strongly about. As the mother of two young boys myself, I can't tell you how important food safety is to me as I know it is to all of you. I'm sorry to say that right now, the statistics are startling. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every year an estimated 87 million Americans are sickened by contaminated food, 371,000 are hospitalized with food-borne illness, and 5,700 die from food-related disease. Of these illnesses, 1 million are caused by salmonella and another 70,000 are due to E. coli. According to a recent report from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 1 out of every 300 samples of ground beef contain E. coli. And while the number of annual recalls nationally of ground beef and other beef products contaminated with E. coli is in the double digits, there is no federal requirement for meat grinders to test the raw beef they receive from slaughterhouses for E. coli. Contaminated food is particularly a threat to our children whose school cafeterias are too often the unwitting host of food borne bacteria. http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-11-16-del-rey_N.htm recently released a study that found that more than 470 outbreaks of food-borne illness at schools between 1998 and 2007 sickened at least 23,000 children.In America, in 2009, it is unconscionable that food is still going straight to our kitchens, school cafeterias and restaurants without being properly tested to ensure its safety. It’s time for a new approach to food safety regulations that focuses on preventing outbreaks before they start and more quickly preventing further illness when an outbreak is detected. That's why I’ve proposed a comprehensive plan to overhaul the country’s food safety laws for the first time in over a century. First, we must strengthen inspection and surveillance. The cornerstone of my plan is a bill I authored called the E. Coli Eradication Act, which would require all slaughterhouses and ground beef plants to test their products regularly before they are ground. As http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/health/19beef.html?_r=1 recently reported: The bill, the E. Coli Eradication Act of 2009, is focused on the slaughterhouse trimmings and other meat components commonly used to make ground beef. It would require testing at the slaughterhouses and then at grinding facilities before the trimmings are mixed.A few companies, including the retail giant Costco, already test incoming trimmings at their grinding facilities, but most of the industry relies on slaughterhouses to test their own trim. Grinders that do their own spot checks typically wait to test the finished product after the trim is mixed, which prevents identifying the source of contamination.Currently there is no federal requirement for companies to test incoming trim. It is time to employ the best practices across the industry.It should be noted that ground beef isn’t the only food infecting people with E. coli and salmonella. Fruits and vegetables can also be contaminated. That’s why we must also overhaul the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the agency has the tools and the resources to keep our foods safe. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act would make comprehensive improvements to the safety of fruits and vegetables by increasing food inspections, providing federal access to records of food facilities, and employing high quality testing labs to ensure the safety of our food. Second, we must improve the safety of imported food. 15 percent of America’s overall food supply is imported from overseas, including 60 percent of fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood. America imports $5.2 billion worth of food from China alone – including 10 percent of our shrimp. To ensure that the safety of food we import matches the standards of food grown and processed here at home, I have called on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prioritize the hiring of additional inspectors to protect consumers from contaminated imported food. Third, we must improve recall response. A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that food items being pulled off of grocery store shelves are still being served to millions of schoolchildren through the federal school lunch program. I have introduced legislation called the Safe Food for Schools Act that would ensure that schools are swiftly alerted when foods are contaminated. I will also work with my colleagues to give the FDA the authority to order mandatory recalls of food products when companies fail to voluntarily recall the product upon the FDA’s request. Right now, all recalls are voluntary – an arrangement that protects the companies, not the public. Lastly, we must improve public education and ensure that information about food-borne illnesses and recalls are distributed accurately and efficiently. I am authoring the Consumer Recall Notification Act ­– legislation that would improve communication among states, state and local health departments, food distributors and vendors to provide consumers with faster and more complete information. For example, we must post all recall notices on the very grocery store shelves and freezers where a recalled product would have been bought. This will help consumers receive vital information in a timely manner.We need to do a better job of catching contaminated food before it ever comes close to a kitchen table, a school cafeteria or a restaurant. It's imperative that parents throughout the country have confidence that the food they serve their kids at home and the food they're getting at school are safe.I look forward to your thoughts and questions in the comments and I'll be back to respond to them in a separate post.

I received some great questions from the Motherhood community in response to http://www.themotherhood.com/post.php?sid=453576 in this country. As promised, here are my responses: Q: How can we encourage people to buy more local food, and use more domestic food and less imported? Wouldn't that help on a variety of levels? " by profile.php?u=2390 A: Yes, Julie, this is not just a food safety issue, but it is a nutrition and health issue as well, and there is quite a bit we can do. I'm a strong advocate for programs that develop fresh, local food and recently secured the commitment of the USDA to create a task force to promote and develop sustainable local and regional food systems. Also, in New York City specifically, I've worked with local leaders to support programs that will provide technical assistance, training, and equipment for the procurement of local foods in our schools. I'm also pushing to make sure that the Child Nutrition Reauthorization continues this work in supporting procurement of local food. It's important to note also that buying local food helps combat urban sprawl by keeping families on their farms, and helps to ensure that food travels fewer miles from farm to table. The more local and fresh the food, the more nutritious the food, which is particularly important for children during their early development. Q: Senator Gillibrand, your efforts to protect our children are so appreciated. From asthma awareness to this initiative for safer food. I hope that as you continue you will look to local individuals and agencies to work to spread the message and create change. I have tried reaching out to your office regarding the work we have done in the North Country to increase asthma awareness (Ease Your Wheeze campaign - Trampoline Design), but have not been able to get through. We are committed to the local economy as well as to the safety of our residents, if we can assist in delivering your message please let us know. As a mom of three daughters, I am desperate to do whatever I can to keep them safe and educate those who are a part of their care taking and educating. Again, thank you for so tirelessly putting yourself out there and in trying so assiduously to really talk to the people. " by profile.php?u=7074 A: Amanda, thank you for your advocacy. My son Theo has asthma, so I know firsthand that it is probably one of the most frightening health ailments a child can have -- for a parent, and for the child. As you probably know, I've proposed a comprehensive plan to combat asthma from making inhalers available to low-income children to increasing the training of certified asthma educators and investing in new research and data collection on the condition. Your help will be invaluable in this effort, please contact my legislative assistant at mailto:shari_swaaley@gillibrand.senate.gov . I'll tell her to expect your email. I am very interested in your work in the North Country and would be grateful for more information. Please send it directly to me through Shari’s email. Q: Thank you so much for sharing this incredibly important information, Senator Gillibrand! I had no idea SO MUCH of our food is imported. Good for Costco, by the way. I'd love to know more about companies who are doing their own testing or other precautions - so we can support them with our business. Thank you so much for being here - we are honored! by profile.php?u=298 A: You're welcome, Cooper. Thanks for having me here. Yes, food testing is one area where the private sector is doing more than the government requires. As a result, the food you get at a fast food chain or at Costco has been subject to more testing than the food on our children's plates at school. That must change. Our children deserve a testing program at least as good as the fast food chains. Here's more information from a http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-12-14-food_N.htm : "Jack in the Box, Burger King, McDonald's and Costco, for instance, check their ground beef for pathogens and contaminants much more frequently, testing as many as 10 samples or more during a typical production day. In comparison, only one sample is tested each day for the ground beef the USDA buys for schools. "The fast food chains set tougher limits for certain bacteria in their hamburger. Ground beef for school lunches can contain up to 10 times the level of some 'indicator bacteria' — organisms that, at high levels, suggest the presence of dangerous pathogens such as E. coli O157:H7." Q: Mom from Western New York here, Senator Gillibrand! My husbands family owned a dairy farm for three generations. just this past spring they had to sell their herd because financially they couldn't make it in the milk business. This saddened me on a personal level, of course, but also gave me pause- We no longer know where most of our food comes from. I try shopping at farmers markets and from local growers in the community but more and more of them go under every year it seems. Does it not make sense that contamination has worsened as our food is grown further and further away? What can be done so local farmers can keep on providing food for their neighbors? by profile.php?u=2774 A: This is why it's so important that our dairy farmers remain in business and that the government does everything it can to make sure the prices they get for their product can sustain them. We do not want to outsource our milk for the exact reason you describe. It is not only an economic issue for thousands of small business owners in New York and throughout the country, but it is a national security issue. I am working on redesigning the pricing system for milk so that cost of production is always reflected in the price received for the milk produced. I hope to have my proposal included in the next Farm Bill. As I wrote above, I'm a strong supporter of incentives for expanding access to locally grown food. I also am in favor of grants for urban community gardens and incentives to expand farmers markets. You're absolutely right that the more locally we eat, the healthier and safer our food and our local communities will be. Q: Virginia - I hear you. My parents own a farm. It's a ticking time bomb as to when they will go under too. They can't compete with box store prices most of the time (because you know they don't pay people next to nothing to do the work). Sadly, many restrictions that are being proposed will only tax them more. It sucks on so many levels. Yeah, I want safe food, but I also think we have to implement policies that aren't going to kill the small farmers who aren't profiting enough to afford the extra costs and can't charge any more on their product because then no one will buy it. It's a double edged sword. That said when you shop from us, you see the farm, you can see what we are doing and how we are caring for the plants, etc, etc. And I think that is a good thing for both parties. **** Food safety is important, but we need to have realistic plans that don't put too much strain on small farmers. And we need to make sure we aren't fixing the problem by causing another one. I will say radiation comes up all the time in relation to food safety, and it scares me. A lot. I think it might solve one problem, but I fear for what it will cause in the future. by profile.php?u=305 A: I will fight to ensure that any food safety legislation does not come at the expense of family farmers. Family farms form the backbone of our rural communities and help us retain our unique American cultural heritage. I am an original cosponsor of a bill, S. 2758, that will provide small family farmers with technical and financial assistance so that they can more easily implement any new food safety policies. I will also be a strong advocate for food safety technologies that are effective and safe for the consumer. I share your concerns about radiation as a potential “kill step” and will fight for rigorous and thorough evaluation of any proposed methods to make sure they do not create unintended consequences. Thanks so much for the questions, everyone. These issues are very important to me and I promise to continue to fight for them in the Senate. I write about food safety on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SenGillibrand ) and on Facebook (http://facebook.com/kirstengillibrand ) and look forward to continuing the conversation there.

Each year approximately 87 million Americans -- 5 million in New York alone -- are made ill by contaminated food. Of those, 371,000 are hospitalized with foodborne illness, and 5,700 die. In 2010 America, this is simply unacceptable. The fact is, our food safety laws have not truly been overhauled in more than a century. Back in December, in my post here at The Motherhood "post.php?sid=453576 ," I wrote about the importance of developing a new comprehensive food safety agenda that brings these laws up to date and focuses on prevention and notification. As I wrote then:...we must improve public education and ensure that information about food-borne illnesses and recalls are distributed accurately and efficiently. I am authoring the Consumer Recall Notification Act – legislation that would improve communication among states, state and local health departments, food distributors and vendors to provide consumers with faster and more complete information. For example, we must post all recall notices on the very grocery store shelves and freezers where a recalled product would have been bought. This will help consumers receive vital information in a timely manner.I am now proud to report that this week, I've introduced The Consumer Recall Notification Act and we're hoping to include it as a part of Senator Durbin's comprehensive Food Safety Modernization Act, which the Senate will take up next month. This bill would accomplish several important goals:Notify ConsumersStores that track purchases through customer loyalty cards or membership programs would be required to notify consumers when they have purchased a recalled product;Distribute Information to Restaurants and Food RetailersFacilities that have distributed foods subject to a Class I recall would be required to notify stores and restaurants within 24 hours of the public announcement of the recall.  The FDA would also be required publish a list online of all stores and restaurants that received contaminated products, which in turn must then post notices where the contaminated product was sold so that consumers can be alerted that they may have purchased a recalled product.Distribute Information to Health WorkersWhen there is a Class I recall, the FDA would be required to distribute advisories to States, local health departments and frontline health professionals, which include a list of symptoms to look out for and test for in order to diagnose food-borne illness.  We still have a lot more work to do to reform America's century-old food safety laws. Currently these laws do not go far enough to protect our families from foodborne illnesses. As the mother of two young boys, protecting children and all Americans from such preventable tragedies is one of the reasons I went into public service. The government must do all it can to protect its citizens and I'm proud to play a part in pushing this important piece of legislation forward.While it's still an uphill climb to get included in the larger bill -- more likely, the bill will call for a study of the value of such notification procedures -- I'm proud that this bill has injected the importance of consumer notification into the conversation. I'm hopeful that -- whether through my bill or another -- similar consumer protections will be included in the final legislation that the Senate will take up next month.As http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/ghri-test-kitchen/new-food-safety-legislation-an wrote last week, you can help by letting your Senator know that you support the Food Safety Modernization Act.You can find out more about Senator Gillibrand at http://kirstengillibrand.com . You can also follow her on http://www.facebook.com/KirstenGillibrand and on http://twitter.com/sengillibrand .