21 U.S.C. § 2221 — Food emergency response network

This section tells the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work with the Secretaries of Agriculture and Homeland Security. It also tells the Secretary to work with state, local, and tribal governments. Together they must report on progress toward a national food emergency lab network. The first report is due within 180 days of January 4, 2011, and a new report is due every two years after that. Each report must go to Congress and be posted on the Department of Health and Human Services' website. The report must cover the network's progress on six things. The network must offer steady watch, quick spotting, and extra capacity for big food emergencies, including someone tainting food on purpose. It must link the food-testing power of state, local, and tribal labs. This means using new tools to spot and identify problems, and sharing data between federal agencies and state labs so everyone sees the same picture. The network must offer food lab services that are easy to reach, fast, correct, and steady nationwide. It must build and keep up a shared set of methods for federal, state, and local officials to use. It must respond to food emergencies. Finally, it must link up with other lab networks run by other federal agencies.

The record indicates that this section was enacted by Public Law 111–353, title II, § 202(b), approved January 4, 2011, and appearing at 124 Stat. 3929. According to the source credit, the provision has been subject to limited subsequent amendment activity, with the credit reflecting a single amendment reference beyond the original enactment. Public Law 111–353 is commonly known as the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a major reform of the federal food safety system enacted in early 2011. The Act is generally understood to have shifted the regulatory approach toward prevention of contamination rather than primarily responding after outbreaks occurred, following a series of high-profile foodborne illness incidents in the preceding years. Title II of the Act addressed improved capacity for detecting and responding to problems in the food supply, and the establishment of laboratory networks and reporting requirements, such as the one reflected in this section, is consistent with that broader emphasis on strengthening surveillance and emergency response infrastructure. Beyond this general understanding of FSMA's purpose, the record does not establish the specific legislative reasoning behind the particular reporting timeline, biennial structure, or the six enumerated network functions set out in this section. Any more detailed account of why Congress structured the provision in this specific way would be speculative and is not supported by the materials provided here.