Food Imports H.R. 3610
16 11 2007A bill is in congress to amend the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to safety for food and drugs imported into the United States (H.R. 3610 introduced by John D. Dingell D - Mich.).
Of key interest to U.S. importers of frozen vegetables are:
If passed it would go into effect not later than 2 years from enactment of this section.
Persons importing would voluntarily agree to abide by the new standards.
Guidelines:
Develop guidelines for food safety programs
Documentation of processing (in essence mirror of a HACCP program).
Certification of facilities
User fees for imported product
Restrict FDA regulated products to only enter ports with FDA labs
These are a few of the main points of the proposed bill. (See The Library Of Congress THOMAS for the bill introduced in September 2007 and search for - hr 3610)
Developing guidelines for food safety should be easy because it would most likely replicate a HACCP program. Certification of facilities will be a cumbersome task. Who will do it? Will it be outsourced? How long would this take? Just looking at China their would be over 1.5 million facilities for food and drug. User fees are just another form of taxation on importers and will be viewed as a barrier to free trade. Restricting the ports will be another difficult task, of the 300 ports only 13 have FDA labs which only 4 of those are equipped to process food. This too will be considered a barrier to trade. How much will this cost you and I the consumer?
Is this a step in the right direction? Yes and no. Food safety is of critical importance for us and all people of the world. If the importers are working with facilities that have programs in place and have 3rd party audits performed, then is it necessary to pass legislation? We have always stated, that as importers you must know your supplier.
Will the same restrictions apply to domestic facilities?
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