• Cincinnati Inquirer , Friday, September 5, 2008 10:16 AM

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is proposing legislation that would create a mandatory tracking system for the food manufacturing and retail industry. Any entity that touches potential food products -- from growers to processors to retailers -- would need to keep detailed records on all interactions with any ingredient; and the Food and Drug Administration would have oversight of the proposed database.

Brown says the system could help speed notification of consumers of possibly tainted food. "If UPS can track a package from my office in Washington, D.C., to my office here in Ohio, why can't food producers and retailers do the same?" Brown says.

The bill calls for $40 million over three years to help set up the system. The proposal includes several good ideas, says Robert Brackett, svp and chief science and regulatory affairs officer for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, but might be going too far and be too complex to fully implement. In addition, the focus should be on finding tainted food and "getting it out of people's mouths" before trying to figure out where it came from, he says.

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