The Food Drug and Administration has proposed new rules intended to improve food safety. Under the new rules, food that is to be imported to the United States will undergo inspection abroad. This means that importers will be more responsible for making sure that the food is safe. The new rules have been made in response to a long-term problem that has affected the food supply chain. The problem is that of having too few inspectors who are required to inspect large amounts of food imports. Currently, only a small fraction of imported food products are checked at borders prior to proceeding to grocery stores in America.
The new food inspection rules are also expected to minimize the number of recalls and outbreaks linked to food-related diseases. About forty-eight million Americans suffer from food-related illnesses at some point annually. This is in addition to about 128, 000 who are hospitalized. Approximately three thousand lose their lives following an outbreak. The demand for different fresh produce and foods has increased. Hence, big stores such as Walmart, Target, and Costco have been known to supply consumers with imported fresh vegetables and fruits all year round. Following the rising demand and the increased cases of food-illness outbreaks, it is essential to increase the monitoring of food imports for safety.
According to the FDA, the new rules will serve as an effective means of establishing the sources of contamination in foods, instead of only focusing on people who get sick. The deputy commissioner said that food checks at borders would still go on. However, instead of depending almost fully on the investigators of the FDA, importers will be responsible for ensuring or verifying that the food imported is safe for human consumption.
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