More than two years after Congress passed a landmark law meant to
prevent the importation of contaminated food that sickens Americans, the
Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on Friday that for the
first time put the main onus on companies to police the food they
import.
Major food importers and consumer advocates generally praised the new rules,
but the advocates also said they worried the rules might give the
companies too much discretion about whether to conduct on-site
inspections of the places where the food is grown and processed. They
said such inspections must be mandated.
The law itself was grappling, in part, with problems that have grown out
of an increasingly globalized food supply. About 15 percent of food
that Americans eat comes from abroad, more than double the amount just
10 years ago, including nearly two-thirds of fresh fruits and
vegetables. And the safety of the food supply — foreign and domestic —
is a critical public health issue. One in every six Americans becomes
ill from eating contaminated food each year, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg,
F.D.A. commissioner, estimated. About 130,000 are hospitalized and 3,000
die.
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