FDA launches series of meetings on food-safety proposals

Feb 28 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration kicked off a series of public meetings on Thursday to explain its proposed new rules for improving the safety of the nation's food supply - and gain feedback on the potential regulations.
The rules offer a framework for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act, which was signed into law in January 2011. The law represents the most sweeping reform of food safety laws in more than 70 years.
More than 3,000 people in the United States die each year from food-borne illnesses, according to federal data. One in six are sickened and 100,000 hospitalized from illness tied to such pathogens as salmonella, E. Coli and listeria.
The new law is designed to move the FDA into preventive mode from the reactive mode in which it has operated historically, swooping in only after an outbreak has occurred. It gives the agency increased powers to inspect facilities and enforce compliance with safety standards.
Yet it remains an open question whether the FDA will be able to invest in the staff, training or technology it needs to implement the rules it has spent two years crafting.
President Barack Obama's 2013 budget included an increase in the FDA's funding of $225 million to implement the new law, the FDA's deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, Michael Taylor, said in an interview.
The funds were to come from fees charged to food facilities, importers and exporters. That budget has not been authorized by Congress.
Even if the funds were to be authorized, they would not be enough to fully implement the regulations, Taylor said.
He declined to give an exact cost estimate, saying that would be presented in an upcoming report to Congress, but he said it would likely be less than the $583 million figure projected by the Congressional Budget Office.
"We think we can implement the law, with caveats, for less than that," he said, "but $225 million wouldn't cover it."
Under the new law, the FDA for the first time will be allowed to penalize U.S. companies that fail to monitor produce they import from abroad, an extra layer of food safety protection for inspectors whose resources are stretched thin.
"Right now at the border, we're limited in the percentage of food and medical devices we can inspect," said Michael Roberts, a consumer safety officer at the FDA, who spoke in an interview at a conference for the National Treasury Employees Union.
The FDA's budget will be even tighter if the automatic budget cuts known as "sequestration" begin on March 1. Those cuts would cut into the travel budget needed for investigators to carry out inspections around the country and the world.
"It's already created a slowdown in operations because you can't predict what will happen," Roberts said.
In January, the FDA released two of five proposed new rules. It discussed the first of those rules, governing agricultural produce, on Thursday. The FDA is set to discuss its proposal for ensuring safety at human food facilities on Friday. Later this year, it will release three additional proposals.
The new regulations lay out a myriad of standards, some less stringent than others, depending on the assessed risk of a particular product or facility. For example, products that are eaten raw are considered to carry a greater risk of contamination than those destined for a food processor.
Recent outbreaks of food-borne illness have been linked to lettuce, spinach, cantaloupe and peanuts, among other foods.

Food Safety Focus on India: A Growing Market

Open to foreign direct investment and with growing food and agriculture sectors, India offers a wealth of opportunity to the food industry. However, as a developing nation, its food safety regulation is only now coming into focus and undergoing extensive improvement.
Consumers, regulatory bodies and the government are all driving food safety improvement. Historically, food safety in India has been regulated by a wide variety of legislative orders and acts, but this ad hoc approach is becoming more streamlined and effective. Nevertheless, logistical challenges remain.
Active Food Safety Standard Enforcement The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) is responsible for active enforcement of the national laws and regulations that govern the retail supply chain and its food processors. It has replaced a fragmented structure that relied on multi-level, multi-departmental control, and now delivers a single line of command, as well as a more visible and recognizable oversight organization.
In an effort to improve food safety standards and open the country for international business India's Food Safety & Standards Act 2006 (FSSA) consolidates the country's existing laws into one cohesive Act and is the building block upon which the FSSAI is based.
To ensure the availability of safe, wholesome food for human consumption, the FSSA sets down scientific standards for food articles, to regulate their manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import. It integrates the licensing provisions in the following food product related Orders:

• Fruit Products Order, 1955.
• Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954.
• Milk and Milk Product Order, 1992.
• Vegetable Oil Products (Control) Order, 1947.
• Edible Oils Packaging (Regulation) Order, 1998.
• The Solvent Extracted Oil, De Oiled Meal and Edible Flour (Control) Order, 1967.
• Meat Food Products Order, 1973.
• Any Order under the Essential Commodities Act, 1995, relating to food.

Improved Opportunity The FSSAI's role as the single point of reference for all matters relating to food safety and standards, regulations and enforcement means not only better service to all stages of the food value chain, but also an improved response to strategic issues such as health foods, nutraceuticals, GM foods and facilitating international trade.
Enforcement of the FSSA is the responsibility of state governments and union territories (UT). However, the FSSAI is also working to shift the emphasis from enforcement to self-compliance, through adoption of food safety management systems.
Introducing consistency between domestic and international food policy measures will help to raise standards without reducing the safeguards to public health and consumer protection.
Consumers will benefit too, as better regulation increases confidence in the quality and safety of food.
As India seeks to increase its export market and deals increasingly with traders already conversant with the stringent regulatory conditions of the USA, Europe and Japan, so the implementation of international standards will become commonplace. Food processors and exporters will have to embrace regulation to ensure continuity of trade.
Retail Responsibility Retailers can ensure compliance with food safety standards by ensuring that their suppliers, manufacturers, packers and growers maintain proper systems that meet the requirements of the FSSA. This can be achieved either by in-house verifiers, or as may be more practical for India's independent business model, by an experienced third party testing and inspection company like SGS.
Chapter IV, paragraph 23 of the FSSA states that no person shall manufacture, distribute, sell, or expose for sale, nor dispatch or deliver to any agent or broker for the purpose of sale, any packaged food product that is not marked and labelled in the manner specified by regulation. It is therefore the retailer's responsibility to ensure compliance of all products. Imported goods intended for retail sale are subject to all provisions of the Standards of Weights and Measures (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 1977, at the point of import.
Introducing a consistent, effective management system coupled with a supplier inspection and verification program will demonstrate compliance and improve standards.
New Market, New Challenges Agriculture is India's third largest industry employing almost half the country's working population and accounting for 18.1% of GDP. On the whole, it is not widely organised and relies heavily on small growers, transporters and traders to supply both domestic and export markets. As one of the world's biggest producers of tea, fresh produce, grains and oilseeds, its producers and transporters are rising to the challenge set by export standards. With a traditionally local focus, the supply chain is both long and low-tech, raising issues that have already been overcome in other markets, such as risk of contamination and damage during delivery.
Contamination Risks To meet growing demand for food production, farmers in India use a range of fertilisers and pesticides. As a result, the agro-chemicals used to grow produce, as well as the veterinary drugs/antibiotics commonly used in animal farming are often found in trace quantities in the final product, and thus enter the food chain.
International traders need to be aware of these risks and work with growers and processors to introduce, implement and verify production processes and policies. A testing program from SGS can verify the presence of these substances and help to ensure the quality and safety of products. Ignorance is no defense; ensure products meet the quality
standards of their destination market.

Additionally, as a developing nation with vast differences in geography and geology, contaminants and impurities can also be picked up from the environment. When transporting or storing commodities, it is essential to prevent insect related risks and damage.
We perform fumigation services in ports and logistics centres worldwide; our skilled and mobile teams deliver effective and reliable interventions. Accordingly, our services comply with stringent legislation, quality and safety standards.
Cleanliness - Cause for Concern At over 3 million km2 India is the seventh largest country in the world. This scale, combined with the road, rail and air infrastructure of a developing country, means that the physical supply chain that moves products to warehouses, processors and on to retail premises is longer than usual.
Travelling great distances and through numerous facilities creates an unusually high risk of contamination, adulteration or infection by pathogens. The monitoring and upkeep of hygiene and other safety measures become difficult.
India's agriculture sector relies heavily on small farmers, local transport companies and distribution chains. There is relatively little co-ordination across the whole country. Many operators, each needing to make a profit and serve local markets, often lack the facilities and other resources to maintain the food safety, hygiene and handling conditions that are expected of an organised, efficient transportation operation.
Without appropriate intervention, the food chain suffers from high rates of wastage and lost market value as food is mishandled, contaminated and/or damaged before it reaches its destination. Globally, it is estimated that during transportation some 10% of grain and 40% of fresh produce is lost and does not reach end consumers.
In response to the country's changing food safety landscape and the pressing need for temperature controlled supply chain facilities, SGS has opened its first integrated food safety and cold chain facility in Mumbai. The first facility of its kind in the area, it is strategically located close to markets, port and city. Precooling, sorting & grading and ripening can all be catered for. Additionally, our FSSAI approved laboratory is nearby. This means faster turn around times and reduced risk of contamination.