The Food and Drug Administration proposed new rules on Friday that would make U.S. food importers responsible for ensuring their foreign suppliers are handling and processing food safely.
Over the past couple of months, there have been numerous outbreaks linked to imported fruits and cheese. One-hundred and fifty-three Hepatitis A cases have been linked to a frozen berry mix sold at Costco last month. Last year, four deaths were linked to listeria in Italian cheese. An outbreak of cyclosporiasis was connected to imported fruits and vegetables, a gastrointestinal infection that sickened 321 people in 13 states.
According to the FDA, an estimated 3,000 people die from food-related illness every year.
The new FDA rules are meant to establish better checks against unsafe imported food from more than 150 countries. Only 2 percent of imported foods are inspected by the government at ports and borders. The rule is a requirement from a food safety law passed by Congress in 2010.
The guideline would also require U.S. food importers to verify the foreign companies they're importing from are achieving the same levels of food safety requirement in this country.
According to the Huffington Post, the government estimates the rules would improve audits of food facilities aboard and cost the food industry up to $472 million annually.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg linked the outbreak of pomegranate seeds from Turkey, as an example of an outbreak that could have been avoided, if new rules were in place. Currently, the government does little to ensure companies are trying to prevent food safety problems, but generally waits and responds to outbreaks after they happen, according to the Huffington Post.
The rules would require farms and food processors to take new precautions against contamination such as making sure workers' wash their hands, the water is clean and livestock stay out of the field. Food manufacturers will have to submit food safety plans to the government to show they're keeping their operations clean.
FDA said the new regulations are needed because food often stops in several locations and passes through many different hands before it hits grocery shelves.
"Serve as a role model for what can be achieved when the private and public sectors work together to achieve a common goal, said Grocery Manufacturers Association, the industry's main trade group, said in a statement,.
