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Senate To Consider Food Safety Changes

Key Senate committee is scheduled to vote on what's likely a first-in-the-nation proposal to require food manufacturers to share internal reports with investigators.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A key Senate committee is scheduled to vote on what's likely a first-in-the-nation proposal to require food manufacturers to share internal reports with investigators.

The Senate Agriculture Committee is scheduled to consider a measure Monday that would require food makers to alert state inspectors within a day of the results of internal tests that show a contaminant. It also would force the companies to conduct the tests at least once a year.

Food safety experts, government groups and industry lobbies say they don't know of any states that have such a requirement.

The proposal is a response to the outbreak linked to a Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga. Investigators say the company knowingly shipped salmonella-laced products after tests showed they were contaminated.

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