The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US has proposed two substantial new food safety rules that will help prevent foodborne illness to augment the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) signed into law two years ago.
Occurrences of foodborne illness in the United States are substantial. One in six Americans suffer from a foodborne illness every year. Nearly 130,000 people are hospitalised and 3,000 die from illnesses contracted through food consumption. Preventing foodborne illnesses will improve public health, reduce medical costs, and avoid the costly disruptions of the food system caused by illness outbreaks and large scale recalls.
The United States has had numerous outbreaks from foodborne illnesses tied to salmonella, E. coli and listeria, with particular food sicknesses linked to lettuce, cantaloupe, spinach, peppers and peanuts.
The proposed rules follow extensive consultation and discussion by the FDA with the produce industry, the consumer community, other government agencies and the international community. For the past two years FDA staff have toured farms and facilities nationwide and participated in hundreds of meetings and presentations with global regulatory partners, industry stakeholders, consumer groups, farmers, state and local officials, and the research community.
“The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is a common sense law that shifts the food safety focus from reactive to preventive,” says Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
“With the support of industry, consumer groups, and the bipartisan leadership in Congress, we are establishing a science-based, flexible system to better prevent foodborne illness and protect American families.”
These two FSMA rules are part of an integrated reform effort that focuses on prevention and addresses the safety of foods produced domestically and imported, with additional rules to be published shortly.
The first rule would require makers of food to be sold in the United States, whether produced at a foreign or domestic based food production facility, to develop a formal plan for preventing their food products from causing foodborne illness.
A second rule proposes safety standard requirements for farms that produce and harvest fruits and vegetables. Farms would be required to meet national standards for the quality of water applied to their crops, as water is often a pathway for pathogens.
“The FDA knows that food safety, from farm to fork, requires partnership with industry, consumers, local, state and tribal governments, and our international trading partners,” says FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg.
“Our proposed rules reflect the input we have received from these stakeholders and we look forward to working with the public as they review the proposed rules.”
“We know one-size-fits-all rules won’t work,” says Michael R. Taylor, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.
“We’ve worked to develop proposed regulations that can be both effective and practical across today’s diverse food system.”
Additional rules to follow soon include new responsibilities for importers to verify that food products grown or processed overseas are as safe as domestically produced food and accreditation standards to strengthen the quality of third party food safety audits overseas. Improving oversight of imported food is an important goal of FSMA. Approximately 15 percent of the food consumed in the United States is imported, with much higher proportions in certain higher risk categories, such as fruits and vegetables. The FDA will also propose a preventative controls rule for animal food facilities, similar to the preventative controls rule proposed today for human food.
New Zealand and United States formalise food safety arrangement
In December last year a formal agreement was signed in Washington between the Ministry for Primary Industries and US Food and Drug Administration recognising that New Zealand and the United States’ food safety systems provide.
This is the first time the FDA has recognised another country’s food safety system as comparable to its own.
“I congratulate the Ministry for Primary Industries and the FDA for working together to reach this excellent achievement,” says minister for Food Safety Kate Wilkinson.
“Such systems recognition agreements can help us maximise export opportunities as they provide for increased international consumer confidence and greater commercial certainty for both importers and exporters.”
The agreement covers all foods and animal feeds regulated by the FDA, which equates to $1.5 billion of New Zealand’s current exports of primary products.
Both countries intend to use the agreement to lessen the potential regulatory burden for foods traded between the countries by removing unnecessary duplicative activities.
The agreement follows a comprehensive review of each country’s relevant laws and regulations, inspection programmes, response to food-related illness and outbreaks, compliance and enforcement, and laboratory support.
