I'm all for industry regulation. I think it's important. But what this bill doesn't address is the small food businesses in this country. Small importers will be put out of business because they cannot afford to pay $10 thousand dollars per year to register. (That is the proposed annual fee)

Along with that, small food manufacturers (including small businesses you find at your local farmer's market) will be put at a huge disadvantage by some of the requirements in this bill, making it next to impossible for them to operate. The labeling requirements alone are absolutely ridiculous for the small business owner, not to mention the registration requirements.

For a small business like mine (I sell cookies), I would have to register each recipe with the FDA. (There goes the secret recipe idea! They will all be public record now!) And the registration of my regular recipes isn't even the worst of it. If I want to do a custom order for a party or baby shower or whatever, I first have to register that custom recipe (even if I only change ONE ingredient like using almond instead of vanilla extract). This means I have to wait for registration to go through and pay any required fees. By the time the paperwork goes through, that special event I'm supposed to bake cookies for will be long gone and over.

Like I said, I'm all for industry regulation. But this bill does not take into account the small business industry. I'm frightened for what this will do to most small businesses.

I realize the bill will affect importers the most. But let's face it, fee's trickle down to the end user. Every food business will be required to register and there will be fees attached to that as well. Where is the incentive to register?? They are, in effect, driving small businesses under ground with this bill. They just have not thought this one through very well, and the food industry is taking a "wait-and-see-what-happens" approach. I don't understand it. This bill needs to be changed BEFORE it becomes law. Not after. Why aren't more small food businesses standing up and taking notice of this? The FDA will wonder why we didn't speak up before. It will be much harder to make changes once this is law.

I certainly hope this side of the argument will be heard and noticed. It's to important to be ignored.

Thank you
Tiffany

I agree with Tiffany. This bill is just too broad and general. It needs to keep its focus on the processing plants where the basic ingredients are processed....not on the small businesses that produce the final products. Keeping the focus on the safety and sanitation of the machines that process the ingredients will help control the issue of contamination in our foods.
Please, re-think and re-write this bill before it ruins the American small businessman.
Thank you.
Beth

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

Ann


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I agree with Tiffany TOTALLY. Again, the focus is on the little people just trying to make a living doing a small business, This is not where the problems are.