ATLANTA – State Representative Kevin Levitas (D- Atlanta) will pre-file legislation next week to put more teeth into Georgia’s Food Safety laws for the protection of consumers. Rep. Levitas co-chairs the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection Investigation and Oversight and said that hours of Subcommittee testimony from a number of witnesses has convinced him of the need for the bill.
Rep. Levitas’ bill, known as the “Sanitary Activity for Food-Processing Enterprises (SAFE) Act” would punish as felons those food processors who knowingly release tainted food products into the stream of commerce resulting in injury or death to consumers.
“Georgia has a well-deserved reputation for setting the gold standard for food safety, and the SAFE Act continues our State’s long tradition of protecting the consuming public” said Rep. Levitas. “Almost every single food processor in Georgia keeps quality and safety as the chief tenets of its business. The SAFE Act is meant to keep out the bad actors and to punish those few who would value profit over human life and safety.”
In addition to punishing food processors who knowingly release tainted products that cause harm to the public, the SAFE Act requires that every food processor maintain a written sanitization plan at its facility to make plant inspections easier to conduct.
Rep. Levitas noted that the SAFE Act builds upon the foundation laid by passage of Senate Bill 80 during the 2009 session of the General Assembly, which Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law in May of this year.
“Sen. Bulloch broke the ground with passage of SB 80, which has become model food safety legislation for other states across the country to follow,” said Rep. Levitas. “The SAFE Act builds upon the Senator’s great work and furthers the goals of protecting the public and ensuring that Georgia’s gold-standard reputation remains strong.”
Rep. Levitas’ bill will be assigned a number and then referred to a House committee when the General Assembly convenes in January.
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Representative Kevin Levitas represents the citizens of District 82, which includes portions of DeKalb County. He was elected into the House of Representatives in 2005, and currently serves on the Judiciary Non-Civil, Science and Technology, Transportation, and Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committees.