Consultations concerning the new regulations are currently taking place, and comments are being accepted on the Internet before rules are enforced.
San José, Costa Rica, March 26, 2014, (IICA). Two new proposals from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States would force producers and importers of food items in that country to improve their practices concerning the safe transfer of food supplies and to take action to prevent deliberate adulteration.
This was reported by the Latin American Regional specialists from the FDA Office, Lisa López and Jon Woody, who presented the proposals in a videoconference organized by the Agricultural Health and Food Safety (AHFS) Program, of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
Both regulations would form part of the US Modernization of the Food Safety Act (MFSA), which was approved in 2011.
One of the proposals is the establishment of an FDA response plan to prevent the intentional adulteration of food that compromises public health, for example, the introduction of biological agents in food products for human consumption at locations where food is manufactured, processed, packaged or stored.
Once the proposal has been approved, producers and importers will need to evaluate activities at their operating plants to determine which of these are vulnerable to adulteration and create risk mitigation strategies.
According to Woody, the regulation would be linked to the US Bioterrorism Act, also approved in 2011, which seeks to prevent attacks with biological agents, to improve emergency response management and capacity, and to ensure public health.
The regulation exempts packers and labellers who have no direct contact with the products, as well as farms and animal feeds.
The second regulation establishes that exporters of food to the United States, as well as transporters and receivers of these products in that country, must implement transport practices that ensure the security of their cargo.
One of these practices, for example, is maintaining the appropriate temperature in the vehicle to preserve the properties of the food.
This proposal applies to motor vehicles as well as train cars, and lays out the specific requirements for bulk transportation. Additionally, it provides details with respect to the sanitary aspects of the vehicles, such as post-delivery cleaning.
The regulation does not apply to food in transit or which will not be consumed in the U.S. Besides, it excludes the transportation of raw fruits and vegetables produced on farms, as well as the transportation of foodstuffs at room temperature or in hermetically sealed containers.
Participants in the videoconference included the Manager of the AHFS Program, Robert Ahern, the Regional Director of the FDA in Latin America, Michael Rogers, and delegates from the public and private sectors of various countries around the hemisphere.
The FDA proposals may be consulted by the general public. Countries may make comments and send queries via the Web page www.regulations.gov.
Comments on the adulteration regulations may be sent up to March 2014, while those relating to safe transport may be sent up to May. The FDA will then analyze the comments and issue the final regulations.
Jon Woody explained that the regulations could be in force from 2016, two months following publication of the final versions.
For further information:
ana.cordero@iica.int
us-fda-lao@fda.hhs.gov
