The U.S. House of Representatives defeated the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 (H.R. 2749), which would have expanded the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authority to regulate domestic and imported food.

"The legislation also increases industry’s responsibility for overseeing the safety of their own products and provides FDA with new and enhanced tools to hold them accountable when they fail," the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Web site says.

The defeated bill differs in some aspects from the one approved on a bipartisan unanimous voice vote last month by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) negotiated grain-related revisions with Energy and Commerce Committee leaders, including an exemption for grains from the bill’s on-farm records access and traceability proposal.

The bill would have required significant new recordkeeping, reporting and annual registration and user fees for food facilities.