U.S. FDA proposes safety rules for imported food

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday issued two proposed rules that require imported food to meet the same safety standards as food produced in the United States.

The proposed rules are part of the Food Safety Modernization Act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2011, the FDA said in a statement. The safety act focuses on preventing food safety problems, rather than relying primarily on responding to problems after the fact, it said.

Under the proposed rules, importers would be accountable for verifying that their foreign suppliers are implementing prevention- oriented food safety practices, and achieving the same level of food safety as U.S. growers and processors, the FDA said.

The agency said it is also proposing rules to "strengthen the quality, objectivity, and transparency of foreign food safety audits."

Imported food accounts for about 15 percent of the U.S. food supply, including about 50 percent of the fresh fruits and 20 percent of the fresh vegetables consumed by Americans, according to the FDA.

"Rather than relying primarily on FDA investigators at the ports to detect and respond to food safety problems, importers would, for the first time, be held accountable for verifying, in a manner transparent to the FDA, that the food they import is safe," said Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.

The proposed rules will be open for public comment for the next 120 days to help the U.S. create "an integrated import oversight system," the FDA added.

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