Don't End Inspections of Pre-Packaged Foods
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Richmond, VA
February 2, 2004
CONTACT: Sue Rafferty,
Legislative Assistant,(804)698-1047
Concerning HB 766, Delegate Al Eisenberg gave the following floor speech:
"I think we should be careful about eliminating inspections of all establishments that sell but don't prepare packaged foods. It seems to me that the problem with this bill is that all kinds of things can happen to packaged foods before they even get to the stores covered by this bill. This bill to me gives a major exemption to every convenience store with prepackaged foods. The argument is that rural mom's and pop's are especially burdened by these inspections, which actually occur pretty infrequently as it is. The fact is that people in rural areas can get food poisoning or some other illness from contaminated food just as easily as suburban and urban people. Eliminating the inspections raises the chance of this, particularly because the stores have no control over what happens during shipping of prepackaged foods, and yes, it is possible that the way the food is stored and handled on the premises can also be faulty.
The issue here is public health. Abandoning all pre-packaged food inspections of these establishments just because they don't make the food is risking public health-and if the unthinkable occurs, the burdens on the places that accidentally sell contaminated food will have more to worry about than inspections."
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