The FDA proposes new safety rules for imported food.
The announcement coming after the recent outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.
The proposed new rules would have products meet the same safety standards as food grown in the US. This, as public health officials work to track down the cause of a multi-state outbreak of Cyclospora. That’s a foodborne intestinal parasite common to tropical locations such as Latin America and Southeast Asia.
The bug has caused more than 300 reported cases of the illness.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, M.D. says, “We’re putting forth two rules that will increase the accountability of people that are manufacturing food or bring food into this country and that will enable us to more closely monitor what’s going on in the facilities that are producing food for consumption here in the United States.”
Hamburg also said, “All of this is geared towards making sure that the U.S. food supply is as safe as possible because we know that we’re increasingly seeing food coming in from other countries and we want to make sure that the global supply chain is as safe and high as quality as possible.”
The FDA issued the rules as part of the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act. It’s a bi-partisan bill that President Barack Obama signed into law in January 2011. The FDA says food importers who fail to meet safety standards could be banned from the market.
For more information on these rules visit: FDA