Rules for safer imported foods proposed by FDA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chances are that about 15 percent of the

food Americans eat — more if a consumer’s diet includes lots of fruits,

vegetables and cheese — comes from abroad, and the government is taking steps to

make it safer.

New rules proposed by the Food and Drug Administration would

make U.S. food importers responsible for ensuring that their suppliers are

handling and processing food safely.

Imported fruit and cheese has been responsible for many

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 also are the top suspect in an

ongoing outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a gastrointestinal infection that has so far

sickened 321 people in 13 states.

Other illnesses in the last several years have been linked

to imported papayas, mangoes and nuts and spices used as ingredients. An

estimated 3,000 people die from food-related illnesses every year.

The proposed rules, required by a sweeping food safety law

passed by Congress in 2010, are meant to establish better checks on what long

has been a scattershot effort to guard against unsafe food imported from more

than 150 countries. Only around 2 percent of that food is inspected by the

government at ports and borders.

The guidelines would require U.S. food importers to verify

that the foreign companies they are importing from are achieving the same levels

of food safety required in this country. The government estimates that the

rules, which also would improve audits of food facilities abroad, eventually

could cost the food industry up to $472 million annually.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg used the frozen berry

illnesses, linked to pomegranate seeds from Turkey, as an example of an outbreak

that could have been prevented if the new rules were in place. She said it

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 illnesses.

Hamburg and other FDA officials said the rules show a major

shift in thinking in the way the government works to keep food safe.

Like rules for domestic farmers and food companies released

earlier this year, the idea is to make businesses more responsible for the

safety of the food they are selling or importing by proving they are using good

food safety practices.

They might do that by documenting basic information about

their suppliers’ cleanliness, testing foods or acquiring food safety audits. If

they fail to verify the food is safe, the FDA could stop shipments of their

food.

Currently, the government does little to ensure that

companies are trying to prevent food safety problems but generally waits and

responds to outbreaks after they happen.

Requiring better prevention was the intent when Congress

passed the bill. But since then, the law has run into several obstacles,

including FDA delays in issuing the rules, a lack of congressional funding and

increasing opposition from some rural members of Congress who represent worried

farmers.

A farm bill passed in the House included an amendment

sponsored by Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., that would delay all of the food safety

rules. Farmers and importers have expressed concern that the rules will require

too much time, cost and paperwork.

FDA regulators said the new rules are necessary as the food

system becomes more complex and more global. Food often stops in several

locations and passes through many different hands in a matter of days before it

hits grocery shelves.

And a lack of funding has given the FDA little oversight

over what is being produced. The agency inspects most food companies in the U.S.

only every five to 10 years, and it does even fewer inspections abroad.

The food safety law requires the agency to step up those

foreign inspections, which jumped from 300 facilities in 2010 to 1,300 last

year, according to the FDA.

But that still is a just a fraction of the companies that

import to the U.S., and limited resources may mean the number of inspections

won’t continue to increase.

The import safety proposal doesn’t include oversight for

meat, which is mostly produced domestically and is regulated by the Agriculture

Department, or seafood, which already is subject to regulations on import

safety. About 80 percent of the seafood Americans eat is imported.

The rules also would exempt smaller importers that have less

than $500,000 in sales annually.

The domestic food safety rules proposed in January would

require U.S. farms and food processors to take new precautions against

contamination such as making sure workers’ hands are washed, irrigation water is

clean and livestock stay out of fields.

Food manufacturers will have to submit food safety plans to

the government to show they are keeping their operations clean.

The food industry, aware of the toll major outbreaks can

have on sales, has been supportive of the FDA food safety proposals and worked

with Congress to pass the law three years ago.

A statement from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the

industry’s main trade group, said 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.”

Food companies have stopped short of pitching into pay for

the regulations, however. In addition to the costs the industry already will

incur from the requirements, the FDA and some lawmakers would like to collect

user fees from the industry for putting the rule in place.

Hamburg said that the FDA is talking to companies about that

possibility.

The FDA will take comments on both the domestic and foreign

food safety proposals in the next several months and then plans to issue final

rules.