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The results of a survey commissioned by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows significant majorities of U.S. voters in favor of providing the Food and Drug Administration with more funds to implement food safety measures and saying that they would be willing to pay more for their food to do so.
Two-thirds (66 percent) of those likely to vote in the next federal election said they support a current proposal to increase the FDA’s annual funding by $183 million (a 5 percent increase over FDA’s previous-year budget) to support the agency’s implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which includes increased inspections of food processing facilities, stronger oversight of imported foods and the authority to issue mandatory food recalls.
The survey also found 74 percent saying that they think it would be worth it to pay up to 3 percent more for food to pay for implementation of the new safety measures. In addition, 70 percent said they would favor having food companies pay an average annual fee of $1,000 per processing facility to help cover the costs of the FDA’s food safety activities.
Pew is a member of the Make Our Food Safe coalition (comprising public health and advocacy groups such as the American Public Health Association, the Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention, Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest), and a strong advocate of the FDA funding, which is due to be debated in a key House appropriations meeting within the next several days.
However, according to Pew, the nationwide poll of 1,015 Americans identifying themselves as likely voters was conducted by a bipartisan research team.
