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To: wooden ships who wrote (4947)	5/12/1998 10:38:00 PM
From: David Bogdanoff	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42834

TB and Allan; Thanks for the link. I too am interested in a safe food supply, but I find this concern about imported vegetables and fruits and little one-sided. It appears to me that the most serious problems of food contamination (i.e. causing death) are from US sources. I believe there was a death caused by e. coli and several illnesses in fruit juice produced by the west coast company Odwalla. Frankly, I can see that there is a growing problem, but I believe it is just too simplistic to blame it on foreign imports. David

To: wooden ships who wrote (4947)	5/13/1998 2:19:00 AM
From: wooden ships	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42834

Alan: Following is the text of the story recounting a recent General Accounting Office study citing the inability of ex- isting US government agencies to guarantee the safety of imported foodstuffs. The news report seems to suggest that the US Department of Agriculture has responsibility for the inspection of imported meats and poultry, with the inspection of other imported foodstuffs delegated to the Food and Drug Administration. Apparently, the FDA lacks the legal and regu- latory muscle accorded to the USDA, especially, with regard to certification of international food processors and growers. Emendations are welcome. "Report: Government unable to ensure safety of imported food May 11, 1998 WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than one-third of all fresh fruit and 12 percent of vegetables consumed in America now come from overseas. But a study release Monday by Congress' in- vestigative agency said the federal government is unable to ensure that imported foods are safe. The findings by the General Accounting Office could boost President Clinton's efforts to strengthen the Food and Drug Administration's authority to require that other countries adopt safe practices for fruit, vegetables, fish and processed foods. If Congress passed pending legislation giving FDA that authority -- which the Agriculture Department already has for imported meat and poultry -- it would "provide greater assurance that the imported foods it is responsible for are safe," the report said. The study did not conclude that imported foods are more dangerous than those produced domestically, but imports grew more than 50 percent since 1990 to reach some $33 billion in 1996. There have been some high-profile incidents of illness from imported foods, including Guatemalan raspberries, Mexican cantaloupes and alfalfa sprouts from the Netherlands. "An increase of this magnitude demands more certainty that our food supply is safe," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who requested the GAO report as chairwoman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. FDA wants better standards overseas. The study found that the FDA's reliance on port-of-entry inspections meant that only 46,395, or 1.7 percent, of more than 2.7 million imported food shipments in 1997 were actually checked by an inspector. Of those, only 16,000 underwent a laboratory analysis for disease-causing organisms or other problems. The Agriculture Department, on the other hand, visually checked every shipment and did inspections on about 20 percent of 118,000 meat and poultry imports. In addition, USDA officials visited 30 countries and checked 336 international plants to ensure their safety practices were equal to those in this country. In a written response to the audit, FDA Associate Commissioner Diane Thompson said the agency is seeking congressional approval for authority to check overseas practices. But to prevent dis- ruptions in international trade, Thompson said there should not be a requirement for all imported foods. "Such a requirement could have the undesirable effect of forcing FDA to bar entry to imports from most of the world" until each countries' practices were certified, she wrote. The FDA also has proposed safety rules regarding seafood and juice processing that would apply to imports. The agency is pushing voluntary agriculture practices for both overseas and domestic fruit and vegetable growers and processors. ------------------------Gaps in system---------------------- The GAO report found other gaps in the imported food safety system, including: USDA's food inspection service focuses too much on violations such as missing shipping labels that "bear little relationship to food safety" and should instead use health data to zero in on foods likely to pose the greatest hazards. Importers, not the FDA, choose which laboratories do sampling when a shipment is held up over food safety questions. In ad- dition, importers often retain control of shipments even if the FDA decides to inspect them and, in some cases, goes ahead and markets them anyway. The FDA was able to conduct only about half its planned inspec- tions and about 65 percent of its planned laboratory analyses on imported foods in 1996 and 1997. The agency said these plans are only projections and that inspectors often are called upon to do emergency work that leaves routine tasks undone."