U.S. Food Safety: The Import Alarm Keep...(associate commissioner of the FDA before...),Health

Date:1/15/2008

associate commissioner of the FDA before retiring in 2005. Hubbard, who is now an adviser for the Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group Coalition for a Stronger FDA, said, "The plan is clearly an attempt to change the paradigm from 'inspect only at the border' to putting more of the responsibility elsewhere," especially at the source of production abroad.

"Put in place procedures where you say to the importer you need to be checking on your supplier, then the exporter in China is supposed to be looking at his supplier and then all the way back to the producer," Hubbard explained. "Everybody is checking on everybody and keeping records. And, in theory, that can work. But the FDA will need new statutory authority to oversee something like that, and resources."

The full scope of the problem remains unclear, however.

Food safety experts stress that it's almost impossible to sort out whether the thousands of smaller food-linked disease outbreaks that occur each year in the United States are attributable to domestic or imported product. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 76 million cases of food-related illness are reported in the United States each year, including 5,000 deaths.

More Contaminants in Imported Foods

One thing is clear: You're more likely to encounter contaminants in foods from abroad than those grown in the United States.

According to a FDA report released in 2003, pesticide violations were cited in 6.1 percent of imported foods sampled versus 2.4 percent of domestic products. And a report issued by the agency a few years earlier found traces of salmonella or the dysentery-linked bacteria shigella in 4 percent of imported fruits and vegetables versus 1.1 percent of domestic produce.

And there's more imported food in the nation's supermarkets than ever before. According to the CDC, food imports to the United States have almo
'/>"/>

Copyright©2008 ScoutNews,LLC. All rights reserved

0 GOOD

Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Related medicine news :

1. U.S. Food Safety: A Grocery List of Tainted Products
2. U.S. Food Safety: Home-Grown Problems Abound
3. Independence Blue Cross Delivers Important Reminder to Women during Cervical Cancer Awareness Month
4. National Cervical Cancer Coalition Stresses Importance of Screening and Prevention During January Cervical Health Awareness Month
5. New Survey Underscores Importance of Psychosocial and Educational Needs Among Women with Advanced Breast Cancer
6. Survey underscores importance of emotional/educational needs among women with advanced breast cancer
7. Recent Reports Underscore the Importance of Testing Supplements for Athletic Banned Substances
8. New Cleaning Industry Topics Page Provides Important Safety and Health Resources
9. HHS Secretary to Visit ToysRUs to Discuss Import Safety, Preview Trip to China
10. HHS Secretary to Visit Pike Place Market to Discuss Import Safety, Preview Trip to China
11. The most important candidate genes for pancreatic stone formation