Posted September 25, 2013
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) public meetings on proposed rules to improve the safety of imported food under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) began last week in Washington D.C., according to a U.S. News article available here.
Two upcoming public meetings are scheduled in Miami, FL on Oct. 10-11 and in Long Beach, CA on Oct. 22-23.
The meetings will focus on two programs which would be created under the proposed rules: The “Foreign Supplier Verification Program” would hold food importers liable for tracking the safety of the food they bring into the U.S. The “Accredited Third-Party Audits and Certificate Program” would create a system for providing credentials to auditors in other countries who would be responsible for inspecting farms and food processing facilities.
According to an AgriNews article available here, about 15 percent of the food Americans consume, more if your diet includes lots of fruits, vegetables, and cheese, is imported. Imported fruit and cheese has been responsible for recent outbreaks, “including 153 recent Hepatitis A illnesses linked to a frozen berry mix sold at Costco, as well as four deaths last year that were linked to listeria in Italian cheese.” Imported fruits or vegetables are also “the top suspect in an ongoing outbreak of cyclosporasis, a gastrointestinal infection that has so far sickened 321 in 13 states.” An estimated 3,000 people die from food-related illnesses every year.
The proposed rules would require U.S. food importers to verify that the foreign companies from which they are importing are meeting the same level of food safety required in the U.S.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said that the outbreak caused by the frozen berries illustrates the “growing complexity of the food supply.” FDA investigators had to look at berries from several different countries that were included in the mix “before they zeroed in on the Turkish seeds as the probable source of the illness.”
The food industry has been supportive of the FDA safety proposals and worked with Congress to pass the FSMA. The Grocery Manufacturers Association stated that the rules “serve as a role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal.”
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