Food Processing - February 2008 - (Page 24)

IMPORTED INGREDIENTS U.S.-CHINA AGREEMENT ON FOOD SAFETY An agreement was signed Dec. 11 by the U.S. and the People’s Republic of China that should improve the safety of food products exported to the U.S. from China. The main thrust is that Chinese authorities will implement two programs, both subject to audit by the FDA: 1. Exporters must register with China’s General Administration of Qualty Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) and agree to annual inspections to ensure their goods meet U.S. standards. AQSIQ will notify HHS/FDA of those that fail inspection and why. HHS/FDA will maintain an online list of registered companies. To contain and resolve safety problems, AQSIQ will implement a system to trace products from the source of production or manufacture to the point of exportation. 2. Certiﬁcates will be required. Once AQSIQ’s Inspection Bureau conﬁrms a shipment meets HHS/FDA requirements, it will issue a certiﬁcate that carries a unique identifying number, which AQSIQ must ﬁle with HHS/FDA. AQSIQ will develop a testing program that provides, as determined by HHS/FDA, a high level of statistical conﬁdence in the quality of products exported. HHS/FDA will explore mechanisms to notify AQSIQ when shipments of products to the U.S. are not certiﬁed or come from a company not registered with AQSIQ. Processors, suppliers responsible As the law is written, it’s really the responsibility of the food processor to provide safe and properly labeled food and to make sure imported products are safe. Many companies protect their customers, brand name and stockholders by taking extra safety measures to ensure their suppliers’ products are safe. “Nestlé is a global company that operates in almost every country of the world, including China,” says Edie Burge, spokesperson for corporate and brand affairs at Nestlé USA, Glendale, Calif. “We have long-term relationships in China with a large number of suppliers and have established high quality standards for the ingredients they supply. “Being part of an international company with geographically diverse operations gives us the advantage of having on-the-ground resources to stay informed on quality assurance issues, and that assists in our continuous improvement efforts. Nestlé has rigorous processes in place to monitor materials that we import from around the world. Product quality is our No. 1 priority.” Battle Creek, Mich.-based Kellogg Co. also has safeguards in place. “All of our suppliers must meet stringent Kellogg requirements, which include third-party audits, food safety and compli24 • FOOD PROCESSING FEBRUARY 2008 As part of the April 2007 investigation into contaminated pet food, a scientist in FDA’s Forensic Chemistry Center in Cincinnati isolates foreign particles from contaminated wheat gluten for chemical analysis. ance to all applicable regulations – regardless of the country of origin,” says spokesperson Kris Charles. “We constantly review our food safety programs and have arranged additional third-party audits of our suppliers in China as an extra precautionary measure.” Tyson Foods Inc., Springdale, Ark., manufactures products in China – for both domestic and export consumption. “We use only suppliers that are already certiﬁed for Japanese export [which is a higher standard than domestic China production], ensuring we start with the best suppliers,” explains James Rice, Tyson’s vice president and general manager-Greater China. “These suppliers, and their suppliers, are audited regularly by our American quality assurance manager, and we practice 100 percent inspection on all raw materials coming into our facility. “When Tyson products are manufactured by our partners, our quality assurance manager and our American production manager are in those facilities ensuring the same quality standards are mainWWW.FOODPROCESSING.COM PHOTO: BLACK STAR/CHRIS CONE FOR FDA First, let’s take the government. A complex regulatory environment exists in the U.S. More than a dozen federal agencies oversee various aspects of food safety. Primarily, FDA shares responsibility with USDA, Dept. of Homeland Security, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state health and agricultural agencies. Today, regulatory authorities not only have to look at the quality of imports but they must be watchful for harmful chemicals and contaminants introduced by terrorists. Oversight for $417 billion worth of domestic food and some $60 billion of imported food each year is the purview of the FDA. That includes about 80 percent of the food supply – just about everything we eat except for meat, poultry, dairy and some egg products, which are regulated by USDA. Unlike USDA, FDA has no authority to require a foreign country to send us safe food. Its job is to ﬁnd unsafe food at the port of entry. Given the high number of imports, FDA can only physically inspect a small percentage of products, so a risk-based approach is the most sensible way to identify products for inspection. FDA claims to “screen” 100 percent of the foods that legally enter the U.S. and are subject to its authority, according to an FDA spokesman. Inspectors then target and identify the products and countries of origin for which it has the greatest concern. Those products, representing 1 to 2 percent of the food imports regulated by FDA, are physically inspected, and FDA samples a subset of those for lab analysis. Under the current food import system, any country or company can export food products to the U.S. if they notify regulators of the shipment. The FDA does not ensure trading partners have equivalent standards, nor can the agency inspect overseas plants when problems arise. So when there is an outbreak, the FDA’s investigation can be delayed by uncooperative foreign governments. During the pet food recall, U.S. regulators were delayed three weeks in their request for visas to inspect Chinese facilities. Since then, FDA has restricted imports of some pet-food ingredients and some seafood from China. http://www.foodprocessing.com

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Food Processing - February 2008 Contents Editor’s Plate NewsBites Regulatory Issues The Trends Rollout Food Biz Kids Product Spotlight Ingredients From Where? Product Development RCA Show Review Plant Operations Packaging New Supplier Products Toops Scoops

Food Processing - February 2008

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