Newhouse, Panetta Call On Feds To Rebuff China’s Claims Regarding Food Packaging & COVID

China is asking the World Health Organization to modify its opinion that coronavirus can transfer on food packaging. And that request is not sitting well with the agriculture community.

Led by Washington’s Dan Newhouse and California’s Jimmy Panetta the request calls on the Administration to recommend that the WHO commission a group of investigators to look into China’s “unfounded claims”. The letter states that one year into the pandemic, the USDA, FDA, CDC and other peer global regulatory bodies continue to underscore that there is no credible evidence to support the transmission of the virus via food or food packaging. The bipartisan letter added if the WHO follows China’s suggestion, it could erode trust in the food supply and efforts to ensure a safe and secure food system.

“A year into living with the ramifications of a global pandemic, it is clearer now than ever before how important science is to our decision-making and how fragile our nation’s food supply chain can be,” Newhouse said. “Men and women in Central Washington and across the country have been working around-the-clock to ensure a safe and secure food supply, and it is alarming that the WHO would accept unfounded, non-scientific claims made by the Chinese government that undermine confidence in our food safety and food supply chains. We must reject baseless, politically-motivated attacks that threaten our country’s agriculture industry and continue to trust the facts.”

Click Here to read the entire letter.

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