II 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3422 

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to provide for the 

establishment of a traceability system for food, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

AUGUST 1, 2008 

Mr. BROWN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions 

A BILL 

To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to 

provide for the establishment of a traceability system 

for food, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Food Tracking Im5 provement Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. TRACEABILITY OF FOOD. 

7 The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 

8 U.S.C. 301 et seq.) is amended— 

9 (1) in section 301, by inserting at the end the 

10 following: 


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1 ‘‘(jj) The failure to comply with any requirement of 

2 section 414A (relating to the traceability of food).’’; and 

3 (2) in chapter IV, by inserting after section 414 

4 the following: 

5 ‘‘SEC. 414A. TRACEABILITY OF FOOD. 

6 ‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT OF SYSTEM.—Not later than 

7 3 years after the date of the enactment of this section, 

8 the Secretary shall establish a traceability system de9 scribed in subsection (b) for all stages of manufacturing, 

10 processing, packaging, and distribution of food. 

11 ‘‘(b) DESCRIPTION OF SYSTEM.—The traceability 

12 system required by subsection (a) shall require each article 

13 of food shipped in interstate commerce to be identified in 

14 a manner that enables the Secretary to retrieve the his15 tory, use, and location of the article through a record16 keeping and audit system, a secure, online database, or 

17 registered identification. 

18 ‘‘(c) RECORDS.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may require 

20 that each person required to identify an article of 

21 food pursuant to subsection (b) maintain accurate 

22 records, as prescribed by the Secretary, regarding 

23 the purchase, sale, and identification of the article. 

24 ‘‘(2) ACCESS.—Each person described in para25 graph (1) shall, at all reasonable times, on notice by 


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1 a duly authorized representative of the Secretary, 

2 allow the representative to access to each place of 

3 business of the person to examine and copy the 

4 records described in paragraph (1). 

5 ‘‘(3) DURATION.—Each person described in 

6 paragraph (1) shall maintain records as required 

7 under this subsection for such period of time as the 

8 Secretary prescribes. 

9 ‘‘(d) FALSE INFORMATION.—No person shall falsify 

10 or misrepresent to any other person or to the Secretary, 

11 any information as to any location at which any article 

12 of food was held. 

13 ‘‘(e) ALTERATION OR DESTRUCTION OF RECORDS.— 

14 No person shall, without authorization from the Secretary, 

15 alter, detach, or destroy any records or other means of 

16 identification prescribed by the Secretary for use in deter17 mining the location at which any article of food was held. 

18 ‘‘(f) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 

19 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—In order to assist the Sec20 retary in implementing the traceability system under 

21 subsection (a), the Secretary shall convene an advi22 sory committee (referred to in this subsection as the 

23 ‘Committee’). 


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1 ‘‘(2) MEMBERSHIP.—The Committee shall con2 sist of 13 members appointed by the Secretary which 

3 shall include— 

4 ‘‘(A) an equitable number of food safety 

5 and tracking technology experts, representatives 

6 of the food industry, and consumer advocates; 

7 and 

8 ‘‘(B) officials from the Center for Food 

9 Safety and Applied Nutrition and the Office of 

10 Regulatory Affairs of the Food and Drug Ad11 ministration and the Agriculture Marketing 

12 Service of the Department of Agriculture. 

13 ‘‘(3) CHAIRPERSON.—The Secretary shall ap14 point a Chairperson of the Committee. 

15 ‘‘(4) MEETING.—The Committee shall convene 

16 not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

17 of this section and periodically thereafter at the call 

18 of the Chairperson. 

19 ‘‘(5) REPORT OF COMMITTEE.— 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year 

21 after the date of enactment of this section, the 

22 Committee shall submit to the Secretary and 

23 the Office of the Commissioner a report that 

24 describes the recommendations regarding the 

25 most practicable approach to providing for the 


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1 traceability of food, including the most efficient 

2 means of implementing the traceback of con3 taminated foods. 

4 ‘‘(B) CONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the 

5 report under subparagraph (A), the Committee 

6 shall consider the following approaches to pro7 viding for the traceability of food: 

8 ‘‘(i) A national database or registry 

9 operated by the Food and Drug Adminis10 tration. 

11 ‘‘(ii) Electronic records identifying 

12 each prior sale, purchase, or trade of the 

13 food and its ingredients, and establishing 

14 that the food and its ingredients were 

15 grown, prepared, handled, manufactured, 

16 processed, distributed, shipped, 

17 warehoused, imported, and conveyed under 

18 conditions to ensure the safety of the food. 

19 The records would include an electronic 

20 statement with the date of, and the names 

21 and addresses of all parties to, each prior 

22 sale, purchase, or trade, and any other in23 formation as appropriate. 

24 ‘‘(iii) Standardized tracking numbers 

25 on all shipments. These numbers would 


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1 identify the country of origin, the unique 

2 facility registration number, date of pro3 duction, and lot number (if applicable). 

4 ‘‘(iv) Recall performance standards 

5 for each food or commodity type. 

6 ‘‘(v) Safeguards for the combining, re7 packing, or otherwise mixing of items of 

8 food, particularly fresh produce. 

9 ‘‘(vi) Other approaches that enable 

10 the reliable tracking of food and food prod11 ucts. 

12 ‘‘(g) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—For the 

13 purpose of carrying out this section, there is authorized 

14 to be appropriated $40,000,000 for the period of fiscal 

15 years 2009 through 2011.’’. 

Æ 


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