Food Processing - February 2008 - (Page 27)

LoophoLes and sLow progress food shipments tested at labs only need to report their results to the importer. if the food is safe, the fdA is notified. But if the food is contaminated, the fdA is not notified if the importer so specifies. in fact, there is no regulation requiring labs to send all tests to the agency, reports Scientific American. Labs cannot report directly to the fdA, even if they want to, according to the magazine. meanwhile, the importer can try another lab for favorable results. david Acheson, fdA’s associate commissioner for foods, says his agency will issue a “guidance” on imported food testing by labs – something the fdA has been working on since 2004. seven years ago, fdA proposed that food shipments rejected at a U.s. port for safety reasons must be marked “UniTed sTATes refUsed enTrY” to discourage unscrupulous importers from trying to sneak them in through another port with fewer inspectors, reports USA Today. despite broad support, the law has yet to take hold, and the fdA has not set specifications on how big the marking should be and where it should go. This inertia is “a failure of the fdA,” according to former senior associate commissioner william Hubbard, who left the agency in 2005. IMPORTED INGREDIENTS cies, working group members visited more than two dozen cities across the country, covering ports, railroads, airports, freight hubs, border crossings, wholesalers, retailers, fruit stands and meat and seafood processing facilities. Its initial findings contained 14 broad recommendations and 50 action steps – a road map for enhancing the safety of the increasing volume of imports entering the U.S. Last Nov. 6, Secretary Leavitt presented the Import Safety Action Plan (details are on our web site). It concluded the U.S. must transition from an outdated “snapshot” approach to import safety, in which decisions are made at the border, to a prevention-focused model that targets critical points in the import life cycle where the risk of the product is greatest, and then verifies the safety of products at those important phases. Simultaneously, FDA developed a comprehensive Food Protection Plan, unveiled in November 2007, to address the changes in food sources, production and consumption. The new plan presents a strategy to protect the food supply from both unintentional contamination and deliberate attack. It builds in prevention first, then intervention, and finally response. But is there money to do all this? The FDA’s FY 2007 budget was $453 million for food alone (for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and for related field activities in the Office of Regulatory Affairs), according to the Appropriations Bill. FDA food programs cover food safety, food defense, dietary supplements, nutrition and cosmetics. In the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, appropriations were increased to $513.5 million. Is a 13 percent increase enough? Funding for the FDA should be doubled over the next two years and manpower increased by 50 percent, says Peter Barton Hutt, former chief counsel of the FDA, internationally recognized partner in Washington law firm Covington & Burling and adjunct food and drug law professor at Harvard Law School. Hutt also implores the food industry to lobby Congress to increase funding. Meanwhile, back in China In response to the melamine contamination, a number of new food safety measures were introduced by China. A four-month crackdown resulted in the closing of 3,191 unlicensed and substandard food makers, the seizure of 4.9 million tons of banned www.foodprocessing.com pesticides and a pledge to spend $1 billion on food safety by 2010. And don’t forget the execution of the head of China’s food and drug agency, who was convicted of taking bribes. Hailed as the biggest breakthrough, Chinese officials agreed to implement a tracking and data-sharing program for a limited number of foods, drugs and medical devices bound for the U.S. Under the agreements, the U.S. will be able to track certain food and drug exports from China as part of a broader registration and certification process designed to allay worries about the quality of Chinese products. Every country and its regulatory agencies are dealing with the problems of globalization and imports. It makes sense for governments to work together to solve them. That would put a big dent in the global food safety problem. Ultimately, the responsibility is no different than that applied within the U.S. Every food company must be responsible for the purity of its end products, and that starts with careful management of suppliers. Everyone in the supply chain has a responsibility. U.S. manufacturers must demand strict standards, and foreign FP0801_Samsom25.pdf 1/8/08 2:24:21 PM suppliers and their governments must meet those demands. “Increasingly, Americans are buying in a global market, and we need to work at all levels to improve quality,” says Leavitt. “We need to build safety in at the front end – not inspect problems out. This means building in standards for safety at the start, where products are made.” Avoid lengthy inspections and non-compliance letters through streamlining YOUR transparent data retrieval system TWO DAY INTENSIVE TRAINING BY VETERAN ORGANIC INSPECTORS March 13 & 14, 2008 Santa Ana, CA, Quality Suites (Prior to Natural Products Expo West 2008) For more information and registration visit: samsomassociates.com Or call: 802-933-2195 feBrUArY 2008 food processing • 27 http://samsomassociates.com 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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