Cárdenas Introduces Farm to Table Safety Act
WASHINGTON, DC –Yesterday, Congressman Tony Cárdenas (CA-29) introduced the Farm to Table Safety Act which expands food-safety education initiatives to include training farmworkers on how to identify sources of food contamination and how to decrease bacterial contamination of food.
“Millions of Americans get sick and thousands die from contaminated foods each year,” said Congressman Cárdenas. “My bill would help prevent foodborne illness and save lives by providing necessary training for farmworkers that would teach them to identify contamination sources. Farmers and farmworkers are our first line of defense when it comes to preventing foodborne disease. We need to do all that we can to keep American families and children safe.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 46 million Americans get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases each year. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that foodborne illnesses cost the United States economy more than $15.6 billion in medical care and lost revenue annually.
###