New Legislation: Food Safety Whistleblowers Now Protected by Law
By way of the U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the administration of President Barack Obama has initiated a new rule by which food safety whistleblowers will be protected from retaliation.
The implementation of this new rule is outlined in Section 402 of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act. It covers any employee that brings safety concerns or employer wrongdoing to the forefront at any point along the food chain--manufacturing, processing, packaging, transportation, distribution, receiving, storage or importation. In short, these employees cannot be fired or disciplined for reporting food safety violations.